The following speech “The Pleasure of Books” is written by
William Lyon Phelps, an American educator, literary critic and author. The
speech was delivered on April 6th, 1933 during a radio broadcast where Phelps
conveyed and developed his affection of books through the use of comparison
(similes and metaphors), rhetorical devices and diction to engage with the
audience.
In the opening paragraph, Lyon indulges with the essence of
reading and his disgust for borrowed books, introducing his audience to the
literary world’s authentic beauty as his central topic. He opens with an
analogy through the lines “The habit of reading is one of the greatest
resources of mankind; and we enjoy reading books that belong to us much more
than if they are borrowed.”, crafting a comparison between borrowed and owned
books. He uses this to further emphasize the relevance of one’s own possession
by adding a simile depicting a borrowed book as a guest, with diction in the
words punctiliousness and formality, outlining the varied moods a member of the
house would have towards an outsider. He follows up with personification in the
text “You must see that it sustains no damage; it must not suffer while under
your roof. You cannot leave it carelessly, you cannot mark it, you cannot turn
down the pages, you cannot use it familiarly.” Where he provides the book with
feelings of pain and suffering, soon implementing an anaphora, directly towards
the listeners, through the repetition of “you cannot”, listing the limitations of
a borrowed book, once more finalizing its relevance of not belonging to the
household. Throughout this paragraph, we can see that Lyon relates towards a
general audience of literature, who read and adore books just as himself by
providing a common event in any booklovers life.
Subsequently, he continues his focus towards the conflict of
borrowed and owned books, now tilting towards the supremacy of books that
belong to ourselves. In the first line “But your own books belong to you; you
treat them with that affectionate intimacy that annihilates formality.” Lyon
supports the understatement presented previously on the limitations of borrowed
books, now scoping the advantages of the items in our possession as he unfolds
his viewpoint on the situation. The passage follows with a hyperbole as
Williams exaggerates the freedom one can and should experience with a book they
own, “Books are for use, not for show; you should own no book that you are
afraid to mark up, or afraid to place on the table, wide open and face down.”. He follows up with this argument through the simile
“it is like a forest where you once blazed a trail.” as well as certain imagery
in the lines to follow, “You have the pleasure of going over the old ground,
and recalling both the intellectual scenery and your own earlier self.”, using
this to back-up and express his support towards owned books by including the
audience’s past experiences into the vast tails and lands explored within their
childhood (“and your own earlier self”).
In the third paragraph, William cherishes the broad
knowledge stored within such fascinating sources of fiction and non-fiction, as
he presents the themes of intellectual property and free will within the
paragraph. Lyon establishes the lines “Everyone should begin collecting a
private library in youth; the instinct of private property, which is
fundamental in human beings, can here be cultivated with every advantage and no
evils.”, using diction in the word “Everyone” to relate to any individual
within the audience as he convinces them that “private property can be here
cultivated with every advantage and no evil” providing a bias upon the topic as
being completely pure. Moreover, the writer portrays the climax of his speech
in the text “they should be free and accessible to the hand as well as to the
eye.” Through the encouragement of knowledge as being open-ended, referring to
the theme of freedom. William then lists the physical characteristics associated
with a book by using imagery as the main device in the passage, expressing the
beauty of such hubs of knowledge, providing personal insight of his time with
books through the lines “Most of my indoor life is spent in a room containing
six thousand books; and I have a stock answer to the invariable question that
comes from strangers. "Have you read all of these books?" "Some
of them twice." This reply is both true and unexpected.”. He inserts a
rhetorical question matched with a hypophora providing an indirect response to
the question to enhance his own viewpoint of interest in literature.
As the text concludes, Lyon now examines fictional
characters with real human beings, preaching the great variables we are able to
study while observing certain personalities and their lifestyle. This is
clearly evident through the inclusion of the lines “There are of course no
friends like living, breathing, corporeal men and women; my devotion to reading
has never made me a recluse.” where Williams uses a simile to compare people in
the real and fictional world. He then follows up with the lines “How could it?
Books are of the people, by the people, for the people.” where a rhetorical
question is paired with an antistrophe to explain that books are never a sign of
mere isolation by repeating the word people. In the lines “Literature is the
immortal part of history; it is the best and most enduring part of personality.
But book-friends have this advantage over living friends; you can enjoy the
most truly aristocratic society in the world whenever you want it.”, Lyon uses
a stream of metaphors alongside diction in the words “immortal”, “enduring” and
“aristocratic society” to validate the relevance and entertainment received
from reading, explaining the everlasting possibilities books can exhibit as
well as communicating with deceased, yet popular authors in the text “But in a
private library, you can at any moment converse with Socrates or Shakespeare or
Carlyle or Dumas or Dickens or Shaw or Barrie or Galsworthy. And there is no
doubt that in these books you see these men at their best.”. As a result, in
the final line “You are necessary to them as an audience is to an actor; only
instead of seeing them masked, you look into their innermost heart of heart.”,
Williams, once again, directly engages with the listeners by adding a simile to
contrast an author with the role of an actor, he inserts imagery as well, to
once more praise the exquisite outlook a book can provide over a movie.
In conclusion, William speaks with an appealing tone and
mood, connecting his personal insights with the audience and attempting to
create a bright and innovative atmosphere. He shapes his argument by quarreling
with the ideas of the literary world as a sight that can only be observed and
explored on a personal level unlike practical adventures. He contemplates with
the themes of freedom and intellectual property to further develop his central
viewpoint and perspective of fictional characters and ecosphere.
