Stylistics is the linguistic study of style in language. Now in its second edition, this book is an introduction to stylistics that locates it firmly within the traditions of linguistics. Organised to reflect the historical development of stylistics, it covers key principles such as foregrounding theory, as well as recent advances in cognitive and corpus stylistics. This edition has been fully revised to cover all the major developments in the field since the first edition, including extensive coverage of corpus stylistics, new sections on a range of topics, additional exercises and commentaries, updated further reading lists, and an entirely re-written final chapter on the disciplinary status of stylistics and its relationship to linguistics, plus a manifesto for the future of the field. Comprehensive in its coverage and assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, it is essential reading for students and researchers new to this fascinating area of language study.