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  1. Home
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  3. Ellipsis in English Literature
  • Cited by 13
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
March 2015
Print publication year:
2015
Online ISBN:
9781139680974
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680974
Subjects:
Literature, Printing and Publishing History, English Literature: General Interest
Information

Book description

Anne Toner provides an original account of the history of ellipsis marks - dots, dashes and asterisks - in English literary writing. Highlighting ever-renewing interest in these forms of non-completion in literature, Toner demonstrates how writers have striven to get closer to the hesitancies and interruptions of spoken language, the indeterminacies of thought, and the successive or fragmented nature of experience by means of these textual symbols. While such punctuation marks may seem routine today, this book describes their emergence in early modern drama and examines the relationship between authors, printers and grammarians in advancing or obstructing the standardisation of the marks. Their development is explored through close study of the works of major English writers, including Jonson, Shakespeare, Richardson, Sterne, Meredith and Woolf, along with visual illustrations of their usage. In particular, Toner traces the evolution of ellipsis marks in the novel, a form highly receptive to elliptical punctuation.

Reviews

'This is a fine book, written with wit, flair, and brio. Economy gives its argument the verve and tautness of an essay, while Toner’s rich range of reference reverberates much farther.'

Kathryn Sutherland Source: Cambridge Quarterly

'[Toner] does not pursue a handful of extensive close readings or author-centred chapters: she sprints with wonderful concision and economy through five centuries of English literature …'

Owen Boynton Source: Essays in Criticism

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