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Title details for The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams - Available

The Dictionary of Lost Words

A Novel

by Pip Williams
Pippa Bennett-Warner
Audiobook
2 of 3 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 3 copies available
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

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 6, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593345061
      • File size: 322240 KB
      • Duration: 11:11:19

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This historical fiction audiobook imagines the origin of the Oxford English Dictionary. Listeners will imagine a garden shed blossoming with myriad slips of paper, all potential submissions for the legendary resource. Listeners in love with words will find Esme, a lexicographer's daughter, a sympathetic protagonist as she tries to find a role in the substantial project. Narrator Pippa Bennett-Warner offers a lyrical intonation and a warm tone, but her delivery tends toward a hasty, sometimes halting, pace and a whispery pitch. There are moments when her sibilant consonants become sharp and distracting. That said, the audiobook certainly creates an absorbing atmosphere that suits the story. The patient, adaptable listener will be rewarded. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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