Tone

<p>Tone is often decisive in whether we love or dislike a story novel or even critical essay. Yet literary critics rarely treat tone as a necessary or important element of literary style or critique. There are surprisingly few analyses of what tone is how texts produce tone or the ways tone--as an essential element of narration--contributes to character story mood and voice. <p/> <i>Tone</i>'s 24 micro-chapters offer a playful eclectic and fast-paced guide into the creation of tone in a variety of modern and contemporary works of literature by such varied writers as Hemingway Woolf and Sedaris as well as in criticism advertising and machine-authored texts. Judith Roof shows how tone is a crucial element in all writing as it produces the illusion of a telling voice; creates a sense of character personality and attitude; inflects events recounted; anticipates certain directions and possibilities; and creates an ambiance that simultaneously produces enables and shapes narratives and characters. <i>Tone </i>gives us a lively and original way to rethink the practice of literary criticism.</p>