The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of PhraseFrom the #1 international bestselling author of The Etymologicon and The Horologicon comes an education in the art of articulation, from the King James Bible to Katy Perry… From classic poetry to pop lyrics, from Charles Dickens to Dolly Parton, even from Jesus to James Bond, Mark Forsyth explains the secrets that make a phrase—such as “O Captain! My Captain!” or “To be or not to be”—memorable. In his inimitably entertaining and wonderfully witty style, he takes apart famous phrases and shows how you too can write like Shakespeare or quip like Oscar Wilde. Whether you’re aiming to achieve literary immortality or just hoping to deliver the perfect one-liner, The Elements of Eloquence proves that you don’t need to have anything important to say—you simply need to say it well. In an age unhealthily obsessed with the power of substance, this is a book that highlights the importance of style. |
Contents
PREFACE | 1 |
CHAPTER | 17 |
CHAPTER FIVE | 33 |
CHAPTER EIGHT | 45 |
CHAPTER ELEVEN | 60 |
CHAPTER THIRTEEN | 75 |
CHAPTER FIFTEEN | 92 |
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN | 108 |
CHAPTER TWENTYTWO | 136 |
CHAPTER TWENTYFIVE | 154 |
CHAPTER TWENTYNINE | 171 |
CHAPTER THIRTY | 176 |
CHAPTER THIRTYTHREE | 190 |
CHAPTER THIRTYSIX | 207 |
CHAPTER THIRTYNINE | 225 |
CHAPTER NINETEEN | 113 |
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The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase Mark Forsyth No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
adjective adynaton alliteration anadiplosis anaphora Ancient answer antithesis aposiopesis asked assonance beautiful Blake called catachresis chap CHAPTER chiasmus Churchill clauses congeries dead death diacope Dickens enallage English epanalepsis epistrophe epizeuxis everything example eyes famous figures of rhetoric film goes grammatical Greek Hamlet hand hendiadys honour hyperbaton hypotaxis iambic pentameter isocolon King Lear litotes look main verb Mark Forsyth mean memorable merism mind never noun paradox personification phrase play pleonasm poem poet polyptoton pretty probably prolepsis prose reason remember rhetorical question rhyme Romans scesis onomaton sense sentence Shakespeare simply song sort sound speech stop subjectio syllepsis symmetry synecdoche talk te-TUM te-TUM tell Tennyson tetrameter There's thing thou thought told transferred epithet trick tricolon trochee truth verse vowels W. H. Auden whole Wilde word write wrong wrote zeugma