Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose » (1st Edition)

"Clear and Simple as the Truth holds the promise of raising the level of the nation's prose.... The book is full of cogency and insight."—Frederick Crews

"A work of great intellectual elegance and power. I have read it with a lot of pleasure, admiring the wisdom and economy of its reflections and the extraordinary range of its citations."—Claude Rawson, Yale University

"A treatment of the classic style that manifests the virtues of the writing it propounds, expounds, and exemplifies in a wealth of fascinating passages, brilliantly analyzed."—M. H. Abrams, Cornell University

"Could well be the most important discussion of style since the great classical rhetoricians."—Wayne C. Booth, University of Chicago

"One of the best discussions of style that I have recently read."—Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone

"Thanks to Thomas and Turner, the cognitive revolution has finally caught up with the analysis of style—brilliantly, learnedly, and, above all, readably."—David Lee Rubin, University of Virginia

"The authors give one of the best discussions of style that I have ever read. Thomas and Turner juxtapose conventionally thought of as disparate, and thereby suggest possible new avenues of interpretation for critics of individual authors. Clear and Simple as the Truth occupies a niche of its own, as a kind of hybrid between books on writing such as The Elements of Style and The Reader over Your Shoulder, and more theoretical studies of representation, such as Mimesis."—Richard Preston, author of American Steel

The Chicago Sun Times

An acclaimed new reference manual.

Acknowledgments vii Clear and Simple as the Truth 3
One: Principles of Classic Style 7
The Concept of Style 9
Recognizing Classic Style 14
The Elements of Style 19
The Classic Stand on the Elements of Style 27
Truth 27
Presentation 35
Scene 41
Cast 49
Thought and Language 61
Other Stands, Other Styles 72
Trade Secrets 103
Two: The Museum 113
Three: Further Readings in Classic Prose 197
Notes 207
Index 221