A History of English Prose Rhythm

by George Saintsbury

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

Genres: Writing

489 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

George Edward Bateman Saintsbury was an English scholar, writer, literary historian and critic.

Reviews

[Alexandre Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grande fã desse livro. Um dos únicos sobre o assunto, talvez o único. Com alguns dos princípios das regras do ritmo da prosa, o que é algo difícil de definir, como o autor menciona várias vezes; e exemplos de parágrafos de todas as épocas da prosa inglesa, muitos dos quais dá uma certa vontade de memorizar.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

How is this book?

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time reading Saintsbury and I wish I'd read closer to my Finnegans Wake reading. Seems the lessons on the development from Old to Modern English is essential for understanding Joyce's textual invention, however I'm not sure this is the BEST text for everyone. Works like Loom of Language may be a better starting place as well as Norton Tempest's Manual or Todorov's more general Poetics of Prose, Mothers Tongue or CS Lewis' essays and histories for readers less informed about English and it's development before Shakespeare. There are a few laugh out loud moments where Saintsbury skims over explanations with the decree that they're self evident, which they most certainly are not if you're not acquainted already with the original language of texts like Beowulf or learned in poetic and prose form.
It's not a typical pedagogical tool nor a typical history. Saintsbury waxes where his passions are (Chaucer is in particular gloriously expounded) yet wanes in the cultivation of a real understanding for the beginner and semi-intermediate in Linguistic studies and I'm afraid if in the unlikely event one stumbles upon this they'll be turned off by Saintsbury's form of erudition rather than enthralled.

If a reprint of this were done it would be essential to provide a symbols key and some annotations as rarely due the references and idiosyncrasies of old English come across as insightful and clear respectively.

None of this is to say one shouldn't feel like a mess reading it anyways. Saintsbury was clearly one of our most sensitive readers and a slow digestion of his dissection is essential to reaching a new level of interaction with a text. This is much like getting a jazz lesson from Wes Montgomery when you're six months in and your fingers still bleed when ya look at the damned noise stick. Read slow and pay as much attention to your breathing as you do to the flow of the prose and you'll be running with the wisest of bulls.