Ward Farnsworth is Professor and W. Page Keeton Chair at the University of Texas School of Law. He is author of The Socratic Method, The Practicing Stoic, and the Farnsworth Classical English series which includes Farnsworth’s Classical English Argument, Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric, Farnsworth’s Classical English Metaphor, and Farnsworth’s Classical English Style—all published by Godine.
Praise for Ward Farnsworth:
The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User’s Manual:
“As befits a good Stoic, Farnsworth’s expository prose exhibits
both clarity and an unflappable calm… Throughout The Practicing
Stoic, Farnsworth beautifully integrates his own observations with
scores of quotations from Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius,
Montaigne and others. As a result, this isn’t just a book to
read—it’s a book to return to, a book that will provide perspective
and consolation at times of heartbreak or calamity.”— Michael
Dirda, The Washington Post
“It is reported that upon Seneca’s tomb are written the words,
Who’s Minding the Stoa? He would be pleased to know the answer is
Ward Farnsworth.”—David Mamet
“This is a book any thoughtful person will be glad to have along as
a companion for an extended weekend or, indeed, for that protracted
journey we call life.”—The New Criterion
“This sturdy and engaging introductory text consists mostly of
excerpts from the ancient Greek and Roman Stoic philosophers,
especially Seneca, Epictetus through his student Arrian, and Marcus
Aurelius as well as that trio’s philosophical confreres, from the
earlier Hellenic Stoics and Cicero to such contemporaries as
Plutarch to moderns, including Montaigne, Adam Smith, and
Schopenhauer… A philosophy to live by, Stoicism may remind many of
Buddhism and Quakerism, for it asks of practitioners something very
similar to what those disciplines call mindfulness.”—Booklist
Farnsworth’s Classical English Style:
“Mr. Farnsworth has written an original and absorbing guide to
English style. Get it if you can.”—Wall Street Journal
“For writers aspiring to master the craft, Farnsworth shows how
it’s done. For lovers of language, he provides waves of sheer
pleasure.”—Steven Pinker
“An eloquent study of the very mechanisms of eloquence.”—Henry
Hitchings
“A great and edifying pleasure.”—Mark Helprin
“A storehouse of effective writing, showing the techniques you may
freely adapt to make music of your own.” —The Baltimore Sun
Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric:
“I must refrain from shouting what a brilliant work this is
(præteritio). Farnsworth has written the book as he ought to have
written it – and as only he could have written it (symploce). Buy
it and read it – buy it and read it (epimone).”—Bryan A. Garner,
Garner’s Modern English Usage
“The most immediate pleasure of this book is that it heightens
one’s appreciation of the craft of great writers and speakers. Mr.
Farnsworth includes numerous examples from Shakespeare and Dickens,
Thoreau and Emerson, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. He also
seems keen to rehabilitate writers and speakers whose rhetorical
artistry is undervalued; besides his liking for Chesterton, he
shows deep admiration for the Irish statesman Henry Grattan
(1746-1820), whose studied repetition of a word (‘No lawyer can say
so; because no lawyer could say so without forfeiting his character
as a lawyer’) is an instance, we are told, of conduplicatio. But
more than anything Mr. Farnsworth wants to restore the reputation
of rhetorical artistry per se, and the result is a handsome work of
reference.”—Henry Hitchings, Wall Street Journal
Farnsworth’s Classical English Metaphor:
“Ward Farnsworth is a witty commentator…It’s a book to dip in and
savor.”—The Boston Globe
“Most people will find it a grab-bag of memorable quotations, an
ideal browsing book for the nightstand.”—Michael Dirda, The
Washington Post
“I want this book to be beside my bed for years to come, a
treasure-house of the liquid magic of words.”—Simon Winchester
“A feat of elegant demystification…Farnsworth is able to focus on
the finite material of metaphorical referents…a brilliant strategy,
both in its utility for writers and the inherent insight
Farnsworth’s divisions suggest about metaphors.”—Jonathan Russell
Clark, The Millions
Ask a Question About this Product More... |