COLLINS, VERE HENRYA BOOK OF ENGLISH PROVERBS
with Origins and Explanations
Longmans, 1963
4. vydanie
jazykoveda, angličtina,
144 s., angličtina
hmotnosť: 273 g
viazaná s prebalom
stav: výborný, nepoužívaná
3,90 € PREDANÉ
*R08*
Mr. Collins, having established a reputation by his work on English usage in three books on synonyms, and three on idioms, has now turned to a new field. Proverbs have been strangely neglected for the reader who wants something more than a dictionary as a reference book, or than a mere list giving the briefest of definitions. Mr. Collins’s treatment is a happy compromise between these two approaches. He confines himself to proverbs that are current, and to what, in contrast to merely proverbial phrases, are maxims; and supplies short explanations in his well-known pithy, light, style.
For a reader whose interest in proverbs leads him a little further than their present use Mr. Collins adds an agreeable spice of scholarship by often quoting early forerunners of a proverb, before it became crystallized in its current form, as it might be found, for example, in Chaucer, the Bible, Shakespeare, the early collectors of proverbs, and sometimes modern writers.
Books on English Usage
by V. H. Collins
Mr. Collins, who has established himself as a well-known champion of the English language, has published six books other than this one—three on synonyms, three on idioms—covering over three thousand words and phrases, with definitions, explanations, and, where necessary, notes on misuses.
These volumes are of great value to all who wish to broaden or make precise their knowledge of English, and should appeal especially to students and teachers at home and overseas, and to journalists.
They have been highly praised by many contemporary critics. These quotations from some of the opinions expressed about The Choice of Words are typical of the press reception of all Mr. Collins's books:
“ Mr. Collins has accomplished the rare feat of making a book of synonyms interesting. His attitude to new importations, and to the new meanings that old words develop, is sane and reasonable. He holds the balance between pedantry and an easy broadmindedness that holds that whatever is is right. This is an excellent and scholarly manual.”—The Times Educational Supplement.
“ I must strongly recommend The Choice of Words. This is a most useful and exact guide to the words that are rightly or wrongly treated as synonyms.”—Raymond Mortimer in The Sunday Times.
“ I congratulate you on it; it will be welcomed by everyone who cares about the precise use of words.”—Sir Ernest Gowers.
“ As one who loves his mother tongue and resents manhandling in cliché, jargon, pompous verbiage, preciosity, affected gentility or rank bad English, I hail with joy the appearance of V. H. Collins's The Choice of Words.”—Guy Ramsey in The Daily Telegraph.
The titles are
THE CHOICE OF WORDS ONE WORD AND ANOTHER RIGHT WORD, WRONG WORD A BOOK OF ENGLISH IDIOMS A SECOND BOOK OF ENGLISH IDIOMS A THIRD BOOK OF ENGLISH IDIOMS
