Clear and Simple As the Truth: Writing Classic Prose

The authors of this book provoke the reader to consider style not as an elegant accessory of effective prose but as its very heart. In the first half of Clear and Simple, the authors introduce a range of styles--reflexive, practical, plain, contemplative, romantic, prophetic, and others--contrasting them to classic style. The principles are simple: The writer adopts the pose that the motive is truth, the purpose is presentation, the reader is an intellectual equal, and the occasion is informal. The second half of the book is a tour of examples showing what has worked and what has not. 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 ZoneFrancis-Noel Thomas is the author of 'Clear and Simple As the Truth: Writing Classic Prose', published 1994 under ISBN 9780691036670 and ISBN 0691036675.