International Journal of Arts and Commerce Vol. 2 No. 7 July 2013 1 THE EFFECT OF ENUMERATION IN THE LANGUAGE OF FICTIONAL PROSE HELEN FIELDING: BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON PhDr. Gabriela Siantova Department of English and American Studies Faculty of Arts University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava Nam. J. Herdu 2 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia Email: siantova@mail.t-com.sk +421335565221 Abstract This article deals with the effect of a chosen syntactical stylistic device – enumeration and its influence on the overall perceiving of the language of a selected fictional prose. Stylistic devices used by an author in a source book form an inseparable part of the language the book is written in. Not only the content but also the language made the book successful and perceived by critics positively. In this short study we have focused on enumeration which represents a syntactical device presented in this literary piece in a frequent occurrence. This study provides the most representative examples of enumeration with our interpretation and findings concerning the role and the effect of this particular syntactical stylistic device in perceiving the literary piece and the main protagonist. The analytic approach of the study contributes to the research of the language and proves how the form in which the selected literary piece is written can accent its quality. KEYWORDS: Stylistics, Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices, Enumeration. 1 Introduction Readers read texts because of many reasons – they need to find some information, to study the procedure in manuals or and this is a very spread reason to read just to enjoy texts and get an aesthetic experience. But there is a question how it comes that readers like the texts? What is it that makes the particular texts interesting and popular among the readers? It means that the readers evaluate them and they like them or, on the contrary, they do not accept them at all and they will never get back again to them. This study explores how it is that the chosen literary work affected so many readers in a positive way (in 2000 it was a bestseller in the UK and the USA) and so popular that also the film has been made according to it. Success of such a literary piece consists not only in a content of the text. There must be something more that makes the book attractive. Not only the content but also the “coat” – term used by Short (1996) of the text makes it moving and enjoyable. The coat is a metaphor for the language – how the sentences are constructed, what expressive means and stylistic devices are used by an author. There is a harmony of both parts that contributes to an overall impression – highly positive in this case. Of course, the readers can understand and perceive the text in a very individual way which is only natural as we have different life experiences, different education, different upbringing and this all can prompt us to have different associations for particular words.