Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric

Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric

by Ward Farnsworth

Narrated by Bronson Pinchot, Jim Meskimen

Unabridged — 9 hours, 25 minutes

Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric

Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric

by Ward Farnsworth

Narrated by Bronson Pinchot, Jim Meskimen

Unabridged — 9 hours, 25 minutes

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Overview

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.


Editorial Reviews

Michael Dirda

…Ward Farnsworth…demonstrates in his witty handbook…the various rhetorical techniques [that] are…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 color to their sentences by employing these tropes or figures…Admittedly, the book is not what you'd call an easy read…but it generously repays the attention you give it.
—The Washington Post

From the Publisher

Praise for Ward Farnsworth:

The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User’s Manual:

“As befits a good Stoic, Farnsworth’s expository prose exhibits both clarity and an unflappable calm… Throughout The Practicing Stoic, Farnsworth beautifully integrates his own observations with scores of quotations from Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Montaigne and others. As a result, this isn’t just a book to read—it’s a book to return to, a book that will provide perspective and consolation at times of heartbreak or calamity.”— Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

“It is reported that upon Seneca’s tomb are written the words, Who’s Minding the Stoa? He would be pleased to know the answer is Ward Farnsworth.”—David Mamet

“This is a book any thoughtful person will be glad to have along as a companion for an extended weekend or, indeed, for that protracted journey we call life.”—The New Criterion

“This sturdy and engaging introductory text consists mostly of excerpts from the ancient Greek and Roman Stoic philosophers, especially Seneca, Epictetus through his student Arrian, and Marcus Aurelius as well as that trio’s philosophical confreres, from the earlier Hellenic Stoics and Cicero to such contemporaries as Plutarch to moderns, including Montaigne, Adam Smith, and Schopenhauer… A philosophy to live by, Stoicism may remind many of Buddhism and Quakerism, for it asks of practitioners something very similar to what those disciplines call mindfulness.”—Booklist

Farnsworth’s Classical English Style:

“Mr. Farnsworth has written an original and absorbing guide to English style. Get it if you can.”—Wall Street Journal

“For writers aspiring to master the craft, Farnsworth shows how it’s done. For lovers of language, he provides waves of sheer pleasure.”—Steven Pinker

“An eloquent study of the very mechanisms of eloquence.”—Henry Hitchings

“A great and edifying pleasure.”—Mark Helprin

“A storehouse of effective writing, showing the techniques you may freely adapt to make music of your own.” —The Baltimore Sun

Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric:

“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, Garner’s Modern English Usage

“The most immediate pleasure of this book is that it heightens one’s appreciation of the craft of great writers and speakers. Mr. Farnsworth includes numerous examples from Shakespeare and Dickens, Thoreau and Emerson, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. He also seems keen to rehabilitate writers and speakers whose rhetorical artistry is undervalued; besides his liking for Chesterton, he shows deep admiration for the Irish statesman Henry Grattan (1746-1820), whose studied repetition of a word (‘No lawyer can say so; because no lawyer could say so without forfeiting his character as a lawyer’) is an instance, we are told, of conduplicatio. But more than anything Mr. Farnsworth wants to restore the reputation of rhetorical artistry per se, and the result is a handsome work of reference.”—Henry Hitchings, Wall Street Journal

Farnsworth’s Classical English Metaphor:

“Ward Farnsworth is a witty commentator…It’s a book to dip in and savor.”—The Boston Globe

“Most people will find it a grab-bag of memorable quotations, an ideal browsing book for the nightstand.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

“I want this book to be beside my bed for years to come, a treasure-house of the liquid magic of words.”—Simon Winchester

“A feat of elegant demystification…Farnsworth is able to focus on the finite material of metaphorical referents…a brilliant strategy, both in its utility for writers and the inherent insight Farnsworth’s divisions suggest about metaphors.”—Jonathan Russell Clark, The Millions

The Wall Street Journal

The most immediate pleasure of this book is that it heightens one's appreciation of the craft of great writers and speakers. Mr. Farnsworth includes numerous examples from Shakespeare and Dickens, Thoreau and Emerson, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. He also seems keen to rehabilitate writers and speakers whose rhetorical artistry is undervalued; besides his liking for Chesterton, he shows deep admiration for the Irish statesman Henry Grattan (1746-1820), whose studied repetition of a word ("No lawyer can say so; because no lawyer could say so without forfeiting his character as a lawyer") is an instance, we are told, of conduplicatio. But more than anything Mr. Farnsworth wants to restore the reputation of rhetorical artistry per se, and the result is a handsome work of reference--(Henry Hutchings)

Barnes and Noble Review.com

A catalogue of rhetorical devices—with abundant examples of each figure of speech culled from oratory and literature—Ward Farnsworth's sparkling compendium is a handbook of eloquence that will delight readers of a certain ilk (you know who you are). Anaphora, epistrophe, isocolon, chiasmus, asyndeton, praeteritio, litotes, and other ghosts of linguistic glory are explained and resurrected in the words of writers like Edmund Burke and Winston Churchill, Herman Melville and Charles Dickens, Chesterton and Conan Doyle. Priceless.

Library Journal

This book, despite its broad title, treats only one part of rhetoric: the word patterns that skilled speakers and writers use in order to heighten the impact of their messages. Farnsworth (law & assoc. dean for academic affairs, Boston Univ. Sch. of Law) defines and exemplifies 18 patterns, such as chiasmus (structural reversal, as in JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country") and anaphora (initial repetition, as in Churchill's "we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight...in the air"). Farnsworth's guide is similar to Richard A. Lanham's A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms but covers fewer topics, in more depth and with more examples. The inclusion of the author's name in the title, as though the work has gained the status of a classic simply by being published, is part of a regrettable trend in language guidebooks.Verdict An engaging and accessible guide, valuable to all who wish to improve their rhetorical skills or better appreciate the abilities of others.—Lisa Richmond, Wheaton Coll. Lib., IL

DECEMBER 2011 - AudioFile

The study of classical rhetoric may seem irrelevant in the age of Twitter, and the idea of a book of categories and examples may not instantly promise an engaging audio experience. But Ward Farnsworth’s explication of English rhetoric proves enlightening, and its examples are excellent. Bronson Pinchot’s reading of the text, balanced with Jim Meskimen’s voiced readings of the examples, is steady paced enough to absorb but brisk enough to hold one’s interest. The examples, delivered in the voices of Churchill, Shakespeare’s Juliet, and a host of Dickens characters, among others, make up an anthology of famous sayings and declarations, and wear well upon re-listening. This is a title best taken in chapters. Each of 18 rhetorical figures is covered in around 20 or 30 minutes—a good month of work commutes rewardingly spent. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID: 2940169578881
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date: 10/03/2011
Edition description: Unabridged
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