Author Description

Product Description [This is the Audiobook CD Library Edition in vinyl case.] Masters of language can turn unassuming words into phrases that are beautiful, effective, and memorable. What are the secrets of this alchemy? Part of the answer lies in rhetorical figures: practical ways of applying great aesthetic principles--repetition and variety, suspense and relief, concealment and surprise--to a simple sentence or paragraph. Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric recovers this knowledge for our times. It amounts to a tutorial on eloquence conducted by Churchill and Lincoln, Dickens and Melville, Burke and Paine, and more than a hundred others. The book organizes a vast range of examples from those sources into eighteen chapters that illustrate and analyze the most valuable rhetorical devices with unprecedented clarity. The result is an indispensable source of pleasure and instruction for all lovers of the English language. Review ''Not only educational but delightful.'' --David Mamet, New York Times bestselling author ''Many things, from dictators to advertising, have made modern people suspicious of and cynical about language mobilized to move us. Fortunately, Ward Farnsworth's delightful swim in a sea of well-chosen words should help to rehabilitate the reputation of rhetoric.''-- George F. Will, New York Times bestselling author and syndicated columnist ''The most immediate pleasure of this book is that it heightens one's appreciation of the craft of great writers and speakers... Mr. Farnsworth wants to restore the reputation of rhetorical artistry per se, and the result is a handsome work of reference.'' --Wall Street Journal''As Ward Farnsworth--a professor of law at Boston University--demonstrates in his witty handbook, the various rhetorical techniques are actually the organizing principles behind vivid writing and speech... More important, this handbook also provides a slew of examples to reveal how great writers have added force and