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3.0 

The King's English

By Kingsley Amis
The King's English by Kingsley Amis digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

A Parthian shot from one of the most important figures in post-war British fiction, The King's English is the late Kingsley Amis's last word on the state of the language. More frolicsome than Fowler's Modern Usage, lighter than the Oxford English Dictionary, and brimming with the strong opinions and razor-sharp wit that made Amis so popular--and so controversial--The King's English is a must for fans and language purists.

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3 Reviews

3.0
“read this a few years ago (probably in 2018 or thereabout) and it’s definitely the worst language book i’ve ever read. i’m reviewing this from memory but it’s just a bunch of random opinions on the english language and its use, many of them based on myths that the author obtained in his latin fuelled adolescence at an english grammar school.* for instance, he is under the very misguided impression that english gets its grammar from latin, which is a (nationalistic) myth which engineers a ~noble~ heritage for the english language but has no basis in reality. but mostly in this book amis goes on random tangents (have a bath = correct, take a bath = incorrect). if you’re interested in learning something about the english language read something written by a linguist (or any author actually interested in language beyond intuiting what sounds right and what sounds wrong) *if i’ve understood it correctly, grammar schools were a sort of “gifted” programme for working class students in britain, where beyond rote memorising latin and greek they learned to think like the privately educated”

About Kingsley Amis

Hailed as one of the great prose stylists to appear in England since the Second World War, Kingsley Amis is the author of more than 20 novels, including Lucky Jim and the Booker-prize winning The Old Devils. Also recognized as a distinguished poet and literary critic, he died in 1995.

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