"Words define us, they explain us, and, on occasion, they serve to control or isolate us."

This was a great read, one that found a way through my haze of unpacking my recently relocated house. It held my attention, kept me wanting to read, instead of unpack, and I feel like I learned so much. It was fascinated and I loved it. ( )

I read The Professor and the Madman a number of years ago. It is a nonfiction book about the massive job of bringing out the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Pip Williams also read that book but she had questions when she finished (such as since all the words in the dictionary had to have a textual source then what about all the words that were never written down?) and she couldn't find answers to them. This novel is her attempt to answer those questions.

Esme grew up with the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Her mother had died in childbirth and her father, who had taught with James Murray, the editor of the OED, worked in the Scriptorium where the quotations and definitions for the dictionary were assembled. Esme went to work in the morning with her father and when the other lexicographers came in, she would slip under the table where they worked. James Murray's maid, Lizzie, cared for Esme in the afternoons. She was little more than a girl herself but she had to go into service at a young age after her mother died. Esme was a precocious child, learning to read at a young age. She was fascinated with words. One day when she was under the table the slip for "bondmaid" fell off the table and she took it. She asked Lizzie for a safe place to hide her word and Lizzie let it put it an old suitcase under her bed. Esme started going to the market with Lizzie and listened to the words the traders used, many of which she didn't understand. She would ask Lizzie what they meant and she would look in the Scriptorium for slips that had those words on them but many of them were not collated. That led Esme to write out slips for those words and put them in the suitcase which she called The Dictionary of Lost Words. In addition to Lizzie, the other important woman in her life was her godmother, Edith, who had been a friend of her mother. Edith was a volunteer for the OED but didn't live in Oxford. She took her godmotherly duties seriously though and corresponded with Esme and her father frequently. After Esme finished school she got her own desk and responsibilities in the Scriptorium. One of her jobs was to deliver documents around Oxford which caused her to meet Gareth Owen who worked in the printshop that was printing the parts of the OED as they came out. Gareth would become an important person in Esme's life but their relationship was not fast moving. Another important person was an actress that Esme met in the market. Tilda was playing Beatrice in As You LIke It and she won Esme over with her outgoing personality. Tilda's brother, Bill, was also in Oxford but he wasn't an actor. Instead he worked back stage in the theatre. Bill seduced Esme (who was not unwilling to be seduced) and Esme became pregnant. Tilda and Bill had returned to London where Tilda was involved with Mrs. Pankhurst and the suffragette cause. Esme knew she didn't love Bill and she appealed to her godmother for help. Edith brought her to live with her and found a couple who were unable to have children to adopt Esme's child, a daughter. . Esme went back to her work at the OED but she was depressed. Edith suggested that Esme and Lizzie get away to Shropshire and take long walks. It helped plus Lizzie made friends with a neighbour where they were staying. Work continued, Esme became more involved with the suffragists (a word she preferred to suffragette), and Gareth became a bigger part of her life. She still yearned for her daughter but she found a way to go on. All the time she was collecting lost words and that collection became her legacy which travelled to Australia to her daughter's hands.

Esme's life encompassed the OED but also great changes in society. Ms Williams has done a great job of capturing these times. This is why I read historical fiction. ( )

An excellent book, though perhaps too memorable to be one I reread. I read this with my Mom's book club. I think its main themes are words and who chooses which are worth using, women's place in science, and how love looks in a different time and place. ( )

Got more than halfway but gave up because I just don't care. Not enough specific words or, honestly, specific characters. Everything is in service to the theme, and we're supposed to accept that there's at least as much well-researched history as there is fiction in this HF. But there just doesn't seem to be anything here that I've not learned from other popular HF. And there are no references. Heck, I just finished a novel for 'tweens last month that had a whole page of References listed in the back.

What I really want is the non-fiction version of this. Which words and senses, exactly, were excised or deemed superfluous? Pip does mention [b:Lost for Words: The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary|331111|Lost for Words The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary|Lynda Mugglestone|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328871491l/331111._SX50_.jpg|321681], I'll investigate that.

Jan 2023

Having previously read the Surgeon of Crowthorne, I really enjoyed this, especially the female perspective.
Aside from anything else, seeing how the dictionary was constructed, compiled and put together is quite fascinating. I’m glad this book showed the importance of female contributions. The Epilogue, Author’s note and Acknowledgments should not be skipped ! ( )