Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal

Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing

An NPR Best Book of 2017: â€œA hell of a lot of fun.â€ â€”NPR
One of Lit Hubâ€™s â€œThe Best Books About Booksâ€
â€œEnlightening.â€ â€”The Wall Street Journal

Data meets literature in this brilliant new look at our favorite authors and their masterpieces: Do literary titans follow their own writing advice (and is it any good)? Do men and women write their characters differently? What are each authorâ€™s favorite words and clichÃ©s?

Thereâ€™s a famous piece of writing adviceâ€”offered by Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, and myriad writers in betweenâ€”not to use -ly adverbs like â€œquicklyâ€ or â€œfitfully.â€ It sounds like solid advice, but can we actually test it? If we were to count all the -ly adverbs these authors used in their careers, do they follow their own advice compared to other celebrated authors? And do great books in generalâ€”the classics and the bestsellersâ€”use fewer adverbs?

In Nabokovâ€™s Favorite Word Is Mauve, statistician and journalist Ben Blatt brings big data to the literary canon, exploring the wealth of fun findings that remain hidden in the works of the worldâ€™s greatest writers. He assembles a database of thousands of books and hundreds of millions of words, and starts asking the questions that have intrigued curious word nerds and book lovers for generations: What are our favorite authorsâ€™ favorite words? Do men and women write differently? Are bestsellers getting dumber over time? Which bestselling writer uses the most clichÃ©s? What makes a great opening sentence? How can we judge a book by its cover? And which writerly advice is worth following or ignoring?

Blatt draws upon existing analysis techniques and invents some of his own. All of his investigations and experiments are original, conducted himself, and no math knowledge is needed to understand the results. Blatt breaks his findings down into lucid, humorous language and clear and compelling visuals. This eye-opening book offers a new appreciation of our favorite authors and a fresh perspective on our own writing, illuminating both the patterns that hold great prose together and the brilliant flourishes that make it unforgettable.
Country USA
Brand Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer Simon & Schuster
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2017-03-14
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781501105388

Country	USA
Brand	Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer	Simon & Schuster
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2017-03-14
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781501105388

Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing

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