Synopses & Reviews
“Like a long periodic sentence, this book rumbles along, gathers steam, shifts gears, and packs a wallop.”
—Roy Blount Jr.
“Language lovers will flock to this homage to great writing.”
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Booklist Outspoken New York Times columnist Stanley Fish offers an entertaining, erudite analysis of language and rhetoric in this delightful celebration of the written word. Drawing on a wide range of great writers, from Philip Roth to Antonin Scalia to Jane Austen and beyond, Fishs How to Write a Sentence is much more than a writing manual—it is a penetrating exploration into the art and craft of sentences.
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“Like a long periodic sentence, this book rumbles along, gathers steam, shifts gears, and packs a wallop.” Boston Globe
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“A sentence is, in John Donne’s words, ‘a little world made cunningly,’ writes Fish. He’ll teach you the art.” Roy Blount Jr.
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“The fun comes from the examples cited throughout: John Updike, Jane Austen…all are cited throughout.” Washington Post
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“Stanley Fish just might be Americas most famous professor.” BookPage
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“For both aspiring writer and eager reader, Fishs insights into sentence construction and care are instructional, even inspirational.” The Huffington Post
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“How to Write a Sentence is a compendium of syntactic gemslight reading for geeks.” New York magazine
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“Fish is a personable and insightful guide with wide-ranging erudition and a lack of pretension.” National Post
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“[Fishs] approach is genially experientiala lifelong readers engagement whose amatory enthusiasm is an attempt to overthrow Strunk and Whites infamous insistences on grammar by rote.” New York Observer
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“If you love language youll find something interesting, if not fascinating, in [How to Write a Sentence].” CBSNews.com
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“How to Write a Sentence isnt merely a prescriptive guide to the craft of writing but a rich and layered exploration of language as an evolving cultural organism. It belongs not on the shelf of your home library but in your brains most deep-seated amphibian sensemaking underbelly.” Maria Popova, Brain Pickings
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“[A] slender but potent volume. Fish, a distinguished law professor and literary theorist, is the anti-Strunk and White.” The Globe and Mail
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“In this small feast of a book Stanley Fish displays his love of the English sentence. His connoisseurship is broad and deep, his examples are often breathtaking, and his analyses of how the masterpieces achieve their effects are acute and compelling.” New Republic
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“Youd get your moneys worth from the quotations alone…if you give this book the attention it so clearly deserves, you will be well rewarded.” Washington Times
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“[Fish] shares his connoisseurship of the elegant sentence.” The New Yorker
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“Language lovers will flock to this homage to great writing.” Booklist
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“This splendid little volume describes how the shape of a sentence controls its meaning.” Boston Globe
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“How to Write a Sentence is the first step on the journey to the Promised Land of good writing.” Saudi Gazette
Synopsis
New York Times Bestseller
Both deeper and more democratic than The Elements of Style Adam Haslett, Financial Times
A guided tour through some of the most beautiful, arresting sentences in the English language. Slate
Like a long periodic sentence, this book rumbles along, gathers steam, shifts gears, and packs a wallop.
Roy Blount Jr.
In this entertaining and erudite New York Times bestseller, beloved professor Stanley Fish offers both sentence craft and sentence pleasure. Drawing on a wide range of great writers, from Philip Roth to Antonin Scalia to Jane Austen, How to Write a Sentence is much more than a writing manual it is a spirited love letter to the written word, and a key to understanding how great writing works.
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About the Author
Stanley Fish is the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor and a professor of law at Florida International University. He has previously taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he was dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He has received many honors and awards, including being named the Chicagoan of the Year for Culture. He is the author of twelve books and is now a weekly columnist for the New York Times. He resides in Andes, New York; New York City; and Delray Beach, Florida; with his wife, Jane Tompkins.