English as She is Wrote

Misplaced phrases, erratic spelling and overblown prose supply the humor in this anonymous collection of English gone astray. The compiler gathers examples from newspaper reports, advertisements, signs, epitaphs and letters, explaining that their writers meant them seriously. A room wanted by two gentlemen acquires impossible dimensions, while a report of a shipwreck leaves its meaning tangled between a chambermaid and a vessel. The amusement comes from the gap between an intended message and the words actually on the page.

Later examples turn to business correspondence and elaborate language that makes simple matters difficult to follow. Orders for household goods sit beside scientific explanations and extravagant praise of English composition. Readers interested in language can use these brief specimens to notice how placement, punctuation and unnecessary complexity alter meaning. The collection also offers a glimpse of the everyday notices and formal prose that its compiler found worth preserving.