An Admirable Point: A Brief History of the Exclamation Mark!

by Florence Hazrat

Overview

“Splendid exploration”—Wall Street Journal

Few punctuation marks elicit quite as much love or hate as the exclamation mark. It's bubbly and exuberant, an emotional amplifier whose flamboyantly dramatic gesture lets the reader know: here be feelings! Scott Fitzgerald famously stated exclamation marks are like laughing at your own joke; Terry Pratchett had a character say that multiple !!! are a 'sure sign of a diseased mind'. So what's the deal with!?

Whether you think it's over-used, or enthusiastically sprinkle your writing with it, ! is inescapable. An Admirable Point recuperates the exclamation mark from its much maligned place at the bottom of the punctuation hierarchy. It explores how ! came about in the first place some six hundred years ago, and uncovers the many ways in which ! has left its mark on art, literature, (pop) culture, and just about any sphere of human activity—from Beowulf to spam emails, ee cummings to neuroscience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781567927870
Publisher:	David R. Godine, Publisher
Publication date:	03/28/2023
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Florence Hazrat is a writer and researcher based in Berlin, working on punctuation in language and culture, and on Renaissance literature. Before she discovered her secret passion for the exclamation point she was a fellow at the University of Sheffield, studying brackets in early modern literature, and at the University of Geneva, working on Shakespeare translations. Florence has been educated at the University of Cambridge and the University of St Andrews where she has received her PhD on refrains in sixteenth-century poetry and drama. She is a BBC New Generation Thinker, making programs about literature for a general audience.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for An Admirable Point!!!!!!

“In writing as in real life, many of us would be relieved to see fewer !!! moments, but Ms. Hazrat’s splendid exploration of ! is stimulating even in an excitement-weary moment.”
—Wall Street Journal

“Entertainingly informative...peppered with wry commentary....This is an essential book for writers and designers who care in developing a unique voice, especially through punctuation.”
—PRINT Magazine

“The history of a much-maligned punctuation mark. As the author notes, it grabs our attention, whether we want it to or not, and it exists in nearly every language....‘Among all glyphs,’ she writes, the bold mark is ‘most available, and most versatile, the most recognisable and most ironic.’ In the end, its job is to ‘attend to admiration’ and ‘point out wonder.’ A delightfully sprightly and pun-laden history.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Worth shouting about. Illuminating history...sharp analysis.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A cross between a microhistory and the recent wave of witty grammar books, including Lynne Truss’ Eats, Shoots & Leaves (2004) and Benjamin Dreyer’s Dreyer’s English (2019), this slim book is so chock-full of interesting facts and ideas that it will leave most readers saying, ‘Wow!’”
—Booklist

From the Publisher