Farnsworth's Classical English Metaphor

“Ward Farnsworth is a witty commentator…a book to dip in and savor.”—The Boston Globe



Say it with metaphor! Here is the most useful and entertaining book ever written about comparisons. It collects the best metaphors ever devised and explains how and why they work.



The book divides the sources of metaphor into families, such as nature, architecture, animals, and myth. It shows how the most talented writers and speakers have put each kind of material to use—for the sake of caricature, or to make an abstract idea visible, or to make a complicated idea simple. The book provides, along the way, a fascinating tour of insights from novelists, playwrights, philosophers, and other great thinkers. There’s interest and amusement to be found on every page.



This book is part of the Farnsworth’s Classical English series, which also includes entries on rhetoric, style, and argument. Like those other books, this one draws lessons about language from speech and writing that has stood the test of time. It lets you learn from the masters and enjoy them.