"I must refrain from shouting what a brilliant work this is (præteritio) . Farnsworth has written the book as he ought to have written it – and as only he could have written it (symploce) . Buy it and read it – buy it and read it (epimone) .”—Bryan A. Garner, author of [i]Garner's Modern English Usage Ward Farnsworth details the timeless principles of rhetoric from Ancient Greece to the present day, drawing on examples in the English language of consummate masters of prose, such...
The most entertaining and instructive book ever written about comparing one thing to another. Ward Farnsworth provides an extraordinarily wide-ranging tour of the most eloquent metaphors, arranged them by theme, with historical and cultural backdrops that inspired their use. There are examples from novelists, playwrights, philosophers, and orators—along with Farnsworth's commentary on how and why they work to bring clarity and power in speech and in writing.
