🕤Download The Dictionary of Lost Words: A Novel by Pip Williams
The Dictionary of Lost Words: A Novel by Pip Williams
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “Delightful . . . [a] captivating and slyly subversive fictional paean to the real women whose work on the Oxford English Dictionary went largely unheralded.”— The New York Times Book Review “A marvelous fiction about the power of language to elevate or repress.”—Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of People of the Book Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary . Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip and, learning that the word means “slave girl,” begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men. As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so she must leave the sheltered world of the university and venture out to meet the people whose words will fill those pages. Set during the height of the women’s suffrage movement and with the Great War looming, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. Inspired by actual events, author Pip Williams has delved into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary to tell this highly original story. The Dictionary of Lost Words is a delightful, lyrical, and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words and the power of language to shape the world. WINNER OF THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK INDUSTRY AWARD Read more
I loved this book. As a retired publisher, the focus on word choice, editing, typesetting, printing, & binding alone would have been enough. But this story about the painstaking efforts of both real & fictional editors and compilers was engrossing. The story encompassed a range of social and historic issues, from class and gender roles to the women's suffrage movement and WWI. Raised by her widowed father, Esme lives a sheltered childhood in Oxford, England, accompanying him to his work as a senior editor for the new Oxford English Dictionary. Words chosen for inclusion must be vetted, researched, and finally approved. The process is slow, and the story unfolds by years and sections of the alphabetical dictionary entries. As a child and later an assistant to the editorial team, Esme comes to realize that discarded words without literary attributions (or those deemed inappropriate by the men who make the final decisions) deserve recognition, and that most of them are commonly used by women. There are several love stories -- among dear friends, colleagues, family, and true love -- and heartaches, deftly written as Esme matures. Highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a rich historical novel based on the esteemed reference dictionary. Who knew there might be such an interesting backstory?!
Publisher -> Ballantine Books (May 3, 2022) Language -> English Paperback -> 416 pages ISBN-10 -> 1984820745 ISBN-13 -> 978-1984820747 Item Weight -> 10.1 ounces Dimensions -> 5.16 x 0.83 x 7.95 inches Best Sellers Rank: #198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1 in Biographical Fiction (Books) #2 in Historical British & Irish Literature #2 in Biographical Historical Fiction
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