The Elements of Eloquence

Mark Forsyth's guide to classical rhetoric gives each chapter to a single figure of speech, illustrated with examples, many of them from Shakespeare. He argues that memorable language is the product of deliberate, formal technique, and takes apart famous lines from sources as varied as the King James Bible, Charles Dickens, Dolly Parton and Katy Perry. Chapters cover alliteration, antithesis, merism, hyperbaton and rhetorical questions, and explain that Bond, James Bond sticks only because of diacope, the repetition of a word with others in between. Forsyth stresses style in an age fixated on substance, and holds that a well-turned phrase can be learned. He is also the author of The Etymologicon.

It appears among the books SOSV general partner Bill Liao named in an interview.