On the Art of Writing
Arthur Quiller-Couch delivered these lectures to students at Cambridge, where he held the first chair of English literature, and the result is one of the warmest guides to writing well ever set on paper. Writing as “Q,” he treats literature as an art to be practised rather than a science to be dissected, and he measures good prose by its clarity, honesty, and respect for the reader. He examines the line between prose and verse, the creep of jargon into public language, and the way a careful choice of words carries meaning. It is here that he gives his famous counsel to writers who fall in love with their own fine phrases: murder your darlings. Free to read as a PDF or EPUB edition.
About the Author
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944) was a Cornish novelist, critic, and Cambridge professor who wrote under the initial Q. He edited the influential Oxford Book of English Verse and shaped generations of readers through his lectures on writing and reading.
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