{"product_id":"9780374280116","title":"The Grammarians","description":"\u003cp\u003eBO\/OKISH. a. [from \u003ci\u003ebook\u003c\/i\u003e.] Given to books. \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eA Dictionary of the English Language\u003c\/i\u003e by Samuel Johnson\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCathleen Schine's \u003ci\u003eEnglish as She Is Spoke\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of Daphne and Laurel, word-obsessed twins bound together by their shared obsession, and also torn apart by it. One grows up to become a well-known language columnist, while the other becomes a poet—each poem an unlikely sampling of lines from a 1940s linguistics manual. Their once-united enthusiasm for words ruptures, and the twins find themselves divided by the long-standing descriptivist\/prescriptivist debate about language. Daphne, the columnist, is devoted to preserving the dignity and formal elegance of traditional language; Laurel, the poet, is thrilled by the living, changing nature of English.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe girls are infatuated with the beauty, mischief, and occasional treachery of language. Every chapter opens with a definition from Samuel Johnson’s dictionary; there are sibling battles over Fowler's; and the twinship finally explodes when the sisters battle, with fiery absurdity, for custody of their deceased father’s copy of Merriam Webster’s \u003ci\u003eNew International Dictionary, Second Edition\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn their debates about language, alternately playful and fervent, Daphne and Laurel come to define themselves, too. \u003ci\u003eEnglish as She Is Spoke\u003c\/i\u003e is not only a story of the delights and tolls of intimacy; it is also a celebration of the unity, and joyful comedy, of language and life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42927126872125,"sku":"9780374280116","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0603\/0838\/9949\/files\/9780374280116_p0.jpg?v=1771586651","url":"https:\/\/www.tatteredcover.com\/products\/9780374280116","provider":"Tattered Cover","version":"1.0","type":"link"}