Style and Composition. By E. Classen. (Macmillan and Co. 3s.
Orl. net.)—A reprint of lectures originally prepared for students of the Science Faculties of Manchester University. In the first chapter Mr. Classen makes an interesting attempt at what is surely as impossible a feat as an analysis of charm—an analysis of Style. " The essence of Style is personality," he tells us ; and again : " Style, then, at the bottom is the dress of thought, and the better it fits, the better the Style." When, however, ho goes on to argue, in common with many other people, that " good Style without good matter is impossible," ho is on very controversial ground. Surely it is the treatment of a subject, and not the subject, which makes Style. Roast pig would not generally be regarded as " good matter," but Charles Lamb proved otherwise. Apart from this chapter, Mr. Classen is concerned chiefly with the technicalities of composition, tho function of the paragraph and the sentence, word order and punctuation. Ho also warns aspiring writers against certain errors of construction, among them that Me noire of the critical, the split infinitive, which, he says pessimistically, " grows more common every day, especially in journalism."
Previous page
