"Style in Fiction is a welcome addition to a body of writings by stylisticians who have over the past two decades cumulatively increased our knowledge of the workings of language in a range of literary genres." Applied Linguistics (about the first edition) This book describes the ways in which the techniques of linguistic analysis and literary criticism can be combined, and illuminated, through the linguistic study of literary style. It draws on the prose fiction of the last 150 years to demonstrate the approach.

本书英文原著Cohesion in English的作者M.A.K.Halliday和Ruqaiya Hasan为国际应用语言学界功能语法学派的代表人物，Cohesion in English为其代表作之一。该书成书于20世纪70年代，一经出版即引起学术界巨大反响，许多研究者开始在此书的基础上进行英语语篇方面的研究。此书已重印多次，至今仍为功能语法理论研究及对英语语篇衔接感兴趣的读者的必读书目。
Cohesion in English一书曾收入外研社出版的《当代国外语言学与应用语言学文库》中，但国内一直未有此书的中译本，本书的出版填补了国内语言学领域的一项空白。