Torn Wings and Faux Pas: A Flashbook of Style, a Beastly Guide Through the Writer's Labyrinth
The author ofThe Deluxe Transitive  VampireandThe  New Well-Tempered Sentencereturns with a styleguide for the  gothic set, featuring a cast of feathered duchesses, baby dragons, and  lascivious banditti. As always, Karen Elizabeth Gordon's sample  sentences are beguiling enough to distract even the staunchest  logophile from the matter at hand. Nonetheless, she manages to tidily  dispose of some of the English language's most ancient and troublesome  dilemmas, from the difference between "affect" and  "effect" to the intricacies of the split-infinitive debate.  Enhanced by the tiny, whimsical line drawings of Rikki Ducornet, this  is one styleguide you just might read like a novel.