| Title:
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THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY
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| By: |
Ambrose Bierce, Roy Morris Jr. |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| List price:
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£13.99 |
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£12.24 |
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£1.75 |
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| ISBN 10: |
0195126270 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780195126273 |
| Availability: |
Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.
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| Stock: |
Currently 0 available |
| Publisher: |
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS INC |
| Pub. date: |
1 November, 1998 |
| Pages: |
256 |
| Description: |
Ambrose Bierce once wrote a review that should be posted in every publisher's office: 'The covers of this book are too far aprt.' Described as 'an eccentric who remains wickedly quotable', Bierce was one of the most celebrated reporters of his eara. He bu8ilt his literary reputation partly on The Devil's Dictionary, a satiric lexicon first published as The Cyni's Word Book in 1906, and later reissued under the author's preferred titled in 1911. The barbed definitionsthat Bierce began publishing in the Wasp, a weekly journal he edited in San Francisco from 1881-1886 brought this 19th century stock form to a new level of artistry. Bierce lampooned social, professionsl, and religious convention as in his definitions for bore-'A person who talks when you wish himto listen'; architect -'One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money',; and saint-'A dead sinner, revised and edited.' |
| Synopsis: |
History, n. an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools. Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all two. Self-Esteem, n. An erroneous appraisement. These caustic aphorisms, collected in The Devil's Dictionary, helped earn Ambrose Bierce the epithets Bitter Bierce, the Devil's Lexicographer, and the Wickedest Man in San Francisco. First published as The Cynic's Word Book (1906) and later reissued under its preferred name in 1911, Bierce's notorious collection of barbed definitions forcibly contradicts Samuel Johnson's earlier definition of a lexicographer as a harmless drudge. There was nothing harmless about Ambrose Bierce, and the words he shaped into verbal pitchforks a century ago-with or without the devil's help-can still draw blood today. |
| Publication: |
US |
| Imprint: |
Oxford University Press Inc |
| Returns: |
Returnable |