The King's English

The King's English is a book on English usage and grammar. It was written by the Fowler brothers, Henry Watson Fowler and Francis George Fowler, and published in 1906, and thus pre-dates by 20 years Modern English Usage, which was written by Henry alone after Francis's death in 1918.

The King's English is less like a dictionary than Modern English Usage; it consists of longer articles on more general topics such as vocabulary, syntax and punctuation, and draws heavily on examples from many sources throughout. Because it has never been updated since the third edition in 1930, it is rather dated, and some of the Fowlers' views are idiosyncratic; however, it still remains useful and has remained in print since its first publication.

The book deals exclusively with British English usage and American readers should be aware that its attitude to 'Americanisms' reflects the age in which it was written.

External Link

• The full text of the second edition is available online at: " class="external">http://www.bartleby.com/116/

References

• Henry Fowler, Frank Fowler, Matthew Parris (Introduction). The King's English (Oxford Language Classics Series). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198605072.