The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
Karen Elizabeth Gordon is no ordinary grammarian, and her works (includingThe New Well-Tempered Sentence,Torn Wings and Faux Pas, andThe Disheveled Dictionary)--are no ordinary  books of grammar. A special edition of the 1984 classic,The Deluxe Transitive Vampireis populated by a wickedly decadent cast of gargoyles, mastodons,  murderous debutantes, and, yes, vampires (both transitive and otherwise), who cavort and consort in order to illustrate basic principles of grammar. The sentences are intoxicating--"How  he loved to dangle his participles, brush his forelock off his forehead with his foreleg, and gaze into the aqueous depths"--but the rules and their explanations are as sound as  any you might find in Strunk and White. Outlining the building blocks of the English language, from parts of speech to phrases and clauses,The Deluxe Transitive Vampiregoes on to exorcise such grammatical demons as passive voice, fragments, comma splices, and run-on sentences. At last, a handbook of grammar you will actuallywantto read. In the words of  Gordon's preface, "Howling, exploding, crackling, flickering with new life-forms, and drunk on fresh  blood (some of mine is certainly missing), this deluxe edition reminds us on every page that words, too,  have hoofs and wings to transport us far and deep."