The Reader Over Your Shoulder: A Handbook for Writers of English Prose - Softcover

Robert Graves; Alan Hodge

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1609807332 ISBN 13: 9781609807337

Publisher: Seven Stories Press, 2017

Synopsis

An indispensable guide for writers of English prose from Robert Graves

First published in 1947, THE READER OVER YOUR SHOULDER remains required reading for anyone who wants to write more clearly and artfully. Editor Alan Hodge and author Robert Graves encourage the writer to write as if 'a crowd of his prospective readers… [are] looking over his shoulder', anticipating possible questions and criticism.

They identify the most common blunders writers make and lay out 41 principles - 25 dealing with clarity of statement, 16 with grace of expression - while showing us how to avoid them. Their insights are as fresh and their examples as entertaining as they were 70 years ago, as they address such topics as 'The Use and Abuse of Official English' and 'Where Is Good English to Be Found?'

In print again for the first time in decades, this lost gem is sure to take its rightful place as an indispensable resource for writers of English prose.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Graves (1895-1985) was a preeminent English poet, novelist, critic, translator and scholar of classical mythology. He served in World War I - an experience recounted in his 1929 autobiography, Goodbye to All That - and later became the first professor of English literature at the University of Cairo. Best remembered today for his acclaimed historical novels about the Roman emperor Claudius, I, Claudius (1934) and Claudius the God (1934), his other books include The White Goddess (1984), The Hebrew Myths (1963), and Collected Poems (1975). Alan Hodge (1915-1979) was a historian and editor. In addition to THE READER OVER YOUR SHOULDER, he collaborated with Graves on Work in Hand (1942), a poetry collection, and The Long Week-End (Norton, 2001), a social history of Britain during the First and Second World War.

Edition details

• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1609807332
• ISBN 13: 9781609807337
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 290