The King's English

The King's English is a sharp, practical guide to writing clear, forceful, and correct prose, built on the Fowler brothers' conviction that good instruction comes from real examples of everyday error. From its candid preface onward, the book announces a method grounded in observed usage rather than abstract theory, and its range is wide: vocabulary, syntax, punctuation, quotation marks, euphony, ambiguity, style, and the many tricks by which prose goes wrong. Its opening counsel is memorable and direct: choose the familiar over the far-fetched, the concrete over the abstract, the brief over the roundabout, and the plain Saxon word over the over-literate alternative. Throughout, the book reads like a lively workshop in revision, exposing the faults of official, journalistic, and literary writing with wit and precision. It catalogs recurring abuses—split infinitives, journalese, tautology, misplaced words, cheap originality, and more—while correcting confused words and false distinctions that blur meaning. At heart, it is a spirited defense of economy, exactness, and good taste, insisting that prose should be natural, balanced, and alive to the ordinary intelligent reader. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.