The New Fowler's Modern English Usage (New Fowler's Modern English Usage, 3rd Ed)

By Henry Watson Fowler

Book Overview

"Fowlers" has sold over a million copies over seven decades. For this new revision, eminent lexicographer Robert Burchfield has rewritten or otherwise enhanced hundreds of entries and has added twenty-four new entries in a special supplement.
The volume remains the classic guide to English usage worldwide. Users will find practical help with grammar, syntax, style, and choice of words; clear guidance on usage offered in light of the language of the 1990s, with many new insights into how English is used today; in-depth coverage of both British and American English, together with aspects of the English of Australia; and wide-ranging illustrative examples, including samples from an international selection of newspapers, journals, and periodicals, as well as from well-known authors such as Martin Amis, Anita Brookner, Ruth Rendell, and John Updike. Whether you have a question about split infinitives, unattached participles, political correctness, or so on, you will find a clear and reliable answer here.
A charming blend of information and good humor, The New Fowler's Modern English Usage offers advice and background information on all aspects of English language, from grammar to spelling to literary style. It is a godsend for writers, broadcasters, journalists, and anyone else who wants to write and speak well.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198602634
• ISBN13: 9780198602637
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 896 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.0" x 2.1" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An Authoratative Guide

The idiomatic use of the English language needs a referee, and some referees are simply better than others. The "anything goes" motto of our times gives us uneven, illiterate, and occasionally brutal prose. This book helps block this inevitable slide into the lack of clarity and coherence. This second edition (cf., Third Edition) of "Modern English Usage" may strike some readers as arcane and archaic, because it is so restrictive in its prescriptions. Given the laxity of many our writers, the use of a strict disciplinarian in philology is a welcome resource.

The Best English Usage Book Available

Excuse the superfluous capitals. Fowler/Gowers 2nd Ed. is quite brilliant; learned and full of humour. It successfully walks the line between descriptive and prescriptive grammar (with perhaps a tendency to over-emphasise prescriptive). The 1st Ed. was too stuffy; the new 3rd Ed. does not come close; indeed it is far too tolerant of the monstrosities so frequently heard today. My favourite bedside book by a long way.