James: so you'll be so good ... to consider it!

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Marius Hancu - 30 Nov 2009 11:35 GMT

Hello:

"so you'll be so good ... to consider it!"

I expected here an inversion:
"so will you be so good ... to consider it?"
but with the interrogative.

Are they both possible?

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[Strether wants to bring Chad from Paris, to Wollett, USA]

"I've come, you know, to make you break with everything, neither more
nor less, and take you straight home; so you'll be so good as
immediately and favourably to consider it!"—Strether, face to face
with Chad after the play, had sounded these words almost breathlessly,
and with an effect at first positively disconcerting to himself alone.

Henry James, The Ambassadors, p. 93
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/432/432-h/432-h.htm
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--
Thanks.
Marius Hancu

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Cheryl - 30 Nov 2009 11:38 GMT

> Hello:
>
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
> Thanks.
> Marius Hancu

They're both possible. 'So you'll be so good' is much stronger than the
inversion - it could be taken as an order, or at least, as an assumption
on the speaker's part that of course the other person will do as stated.

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Cheryl

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Marius Hancu - 30 Nov 2009 12:02 GMT

> > "so you'll be so good ... to consider it!"
>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> > with Chad after the play, had sounded these words almost breathlessly,
> > and with an effect at first positively disconcerting to himself alone.

> They're both possible. 'So you'll be so good' is much stronger than the
> inversion - it could be taken as an order, or at least, as an assumption
> on the speaker's part that of course the other person will do as stated.

Thank you.
Marius Hancu

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2009

James: so you'll be so good ... to consider it!