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Mr. Tom Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

A dangling? Working as a...

Hi

Sidney Sheldon's autobiography starts like this? I want to know if the purists would find this sentence dangling and frown upon it? (Would any of you frown upon it?)

At the age of seventeen, working as a delivery boy at Afremow's drugstore in Chicago was the perfect job, because it made it possible for me to steal enough sleeping pills to commit suicide.

Thanks,

Tom
  

Top answer

It's fine to me. It's easy to see that the phrase 'At the age of seventeen' relates to 'me'.

— Clive

  • It's fine to me.
  • It's easy to see that the phrase 'At the age of seventeen' relates to 'me'.
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5 Answers
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It's fine to me.
It's easy to see that the phrase 'At the age of seventeen' relates to 'me'.
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In my opinion, under the very strictest scrutiny it is dangling, but it is a benign example.
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Mr. TomI want to know if the purists would find this sentence dangling
It's possible that a purist might object on the basis of one analysis or another, but it seems to me that the better analysis is that the author wanted to invert the canonical Working at the age of seventeen as a delivery boy ... so that the age (very young to be considering suicide)
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CalifJimbut it seems to me that the better analysis is that the author wanted to invert the canonical Working at the age of seventeen as a delivery boy ...
For me personally, "Working at the age of seventeen as a delivery boy at Afremow's drugstore in Chicago was the perfect job" sounds worse than the original.
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GPYsounds worse than the original.
Well, there's also this:

Working as a delivery boy at Afremow's drugstore in Chicago at the age of seventeen was the perfect job.

In any case I don't think my point suffers. Moving a phrase to the front of the sentence is involved either way.

CJ
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