Synopses & Reviews
At long last, The New Well-Tempered Sentence rescues punctuation from the perils of boredom, with wholly original explanations of the rules of punctuation, whimsical graphics, and utterly unforgettable characters (yes, characters in a grammar book). Gordon teaches you clearly and simply where to place a comma and how to use an apostrophe. Gradually, as you master the elusive slashes, dots, and dashes that give expression to our most perplexing thoughts, you will find yourself in the grip of a bizarre and bemusing comedy of manners. Witty, saucy, and utterly unforgettable, The New Well-Tempered Sentence is a must-have for anyone who has ever despaired of opening a punctuation handbook but whose sentences despair without one.
Synopsis
For two decades, Karen Elizabeth Gordon's beloved and beguiling language handbooks have provided instruction and pleasure to students and scholars alike. Now available for the first time in trade paperback, these two classic works are sure to appeal to a whole new audience of language lovers and loathers: anyone who has ever fumbled for the proper word or punctuation mark. "Eerily sensitive to the creative potential of language, Karen Elizabeth Gordon has birthed a genre and renewed the language" (Robert Grudin). Whether read for pleasure or for prevention of serious language perils, her witty, urbane, and wholly original books provide us with "one of the most entertaining ways to get the fundamentals" (Denver Post).
Synopsis
In The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, Karen Elizabeth Gordon manages to make the period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, and semicolon sound friendly instead of forbidding (New York Times).
This essential guide to grammar rescues punctuation from the perils of boredom, with wholly original explanations of the rules, whimsical graphics, and utterly unforgettable characters. Gordon teaches you clearly and simply where to place a comma and how to use an apostrophe. Gradually, as you master the elusive slashes, dots, and dashes that give expression to our most perplexing thoughts, you will find yourself in the grip of a bizarre and bemusing comedy of manners.
Witty, saucy, and utterly unforgettable, The New Well-Tempered Sentence is a must-have for anyone who has ever despaired of opening a punctuation handbook but whose sentences despair without one.
Synopsis
Now available for the first time in trade paperback, this classic work is sure to appeal to a whole new audience of language lovers and loathers: anyone who has ever fumbled for the proper word or punctuation mark.
About the Author
Karen Elizabeth Gordon is the author of the classic and comic reference books The Deluxe Transitive Vampire, The New Well-Tempered Sentence, and Torn Wings and Faux Pas. Her wanderlusting fiction includes The Ravenous Muse, The Red Shoes and Other Tattered Tales, and Paris Out of Hand. She lives in Berkeley, California and Paris.