The American Language | Style

Humor
Mencken uses his trademark wry sense of humor to make his linguistic treatise entertaining. Prior to completing this book, Mencken had poked fun at American scholars, but with this book, he found himself among them. Still, he applied the same writing style to his scholarly work that he had used in so many other forums. The result is a meticulously detailed book that is accessible and enjoyable to the general public. What could be very bland reading comes to life in Mencken's editorial comments. In chapter one, Mencken observes, "In every age, of course, there have been...

[The entire page is 773 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

Summary and Analysis – Themes – Characters – And much more...