The Professor & the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity & the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

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The Professor & the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity & the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 · rating details · 35,607 ratings · 2,712 reviews

Perhaps the greatest character of this story is the dictionary itself: a history & definition of every word that ever existed in English. Originally envisioned as a 10-year project that would produce 6400 pages in 3 volumes, the finished product took 70 years to complete & comprised 15,490 pages in 10 volumes. There are 414,800 words in the OED, defined & illus...more Perhaps the greatest character of this story is the dictionary itself: a history & definition of every word that ever existed in English. Originally envisioned as a 10-year project that would produce 6400 pages in 3 volumes, the finished product took 70 years to complete & comprised 15,490 pages in 10 volumes. There are 414,800 words in the OED, defined & illustrated by 1,861,200 quotations from some 4500 works of literature by 2700 writers, all compiled by 2000 contributors round the globe. The entire enterprise was overseen by a single editor. Tho entrusted with the greatest literary project in the history of written English, James Murray (1837-1915) came from outside the establishment of London intellectual society & grew up in a world far removed from the rarified halls of Oxford University. A self-taught master of more than a dozen ancient & modern languages (his formal education ended at age 14), he developed a comprehensive knowledge of & driving passion for words. His scholarly work brought him into the staid & prestigious London Philological Society. There the dictionary project was launched & there, in 1879, he was given control of it. As the editor in chief, it was his job to ensure the accurate cataloguing of every word English writers have ever written. He oversaw a workshop of clerks & subeditors who received, sorted & resorted the thousands of submissions pouring in weekly from hundreds of active contributors. The readers' job was to find the earliest possible illustrative uses of every word, write them on slips of paper & mail them to Oxford. Some contributors were more trouble than use. Others distinguished themselves as invaluable researchers. One of the most prolific readers was Dr W.C. Minor, retired US Army captain, Yale graduate & inmate of England's Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Cogent, but dangerously delusional, Minor contributed some 10,000 quotations to the dictionary over 2 decades. The Professor & the Madman interweaves the sagas of Murray, Minor & the OED with all the fascination of a well-crafted mystery, compelling the reader to find out how two such remarkable men came to cooperate on such a ludicrously ambitious project. Winchester's history celebrates the dictionary, the man who made it happen & one of the project's most remarkable volunteers.--Greg Sewell (edited)
1. The dead of night in Lambeth Marsh
2. The man who taught Latin to cattle
3. The madness of war
4. Gathering Earth's daughters
5. The big dictionary conceived
6. The scholar in cell block two
7. Entering the lists
8. Annulated, art, brick-tea, buckwheat
9. The meeting of minds-
10. The unkindest cut
11. Then only the monuments(less)

Paperback, First Edition, 200 pages

Published March 2003 by Harpercollins (first published September 28th 1998)

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Jan 03, 2012 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, biographies, history, books-about-books, audiobook, 1990-1999, true-crime

As a completely fledged bibliopsychotic and an ever-striving-to-be cunning-linguist , I was all aquiver with anticipation to bury my face in this purported history of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Alas, despite being well-written and thoroughly researched, I’m having to fake it a bit to give this a full 3 stars.

My primary joy-dampening problem with the book’s arrangement was the dearth of page time given to what I see as the most fascinating aspect of the story…the actual nuts and bolts...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Jason Koivu rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: word nerds that want a bit of titillation

Recommended to Jason by: friends

Shelves: biography, history

A man goes insane, shoots another man to death and then helps write one of the first complete dictionaries. What an odd way to enter the academic world.

The idea of reading a book on the creation of a dictionary only sounded mildly interesting. In the hands of the wrong writer that book might not have enthralled me from start to finish the way Simon WInchester's The Professor and the Madman did. Granted the story has its intriguing oddities and the occasional shocking moment, but it's Winchester'...more

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Sep 01, 2008 Debbie Petersen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: linguists, English Majors, historians

This book has been on my to-read list for some time, and I had a few preconceived ideas that turned out to be wrong. For instance, I had assumed that the "madman" would have been someone psychotically insane, the type of man that you would pass in the street and cross to the other side, since he would be unkempt and smelly and gibbering nonsense to unseen companions. As it turns out, the "madman" was an American doctor, educated at Yale, who was a surgeon and former Army officer. He apparently s...more

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May 26, 2013 Cathy DuPont rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) had no English dictionary to reference when he wrote his 38 plays, sonnets and poems.

Until Samuel Johnson, an English writer and lexicographer, compiled A Dictionary of the English Language the English speaking people had few concise or friendly dictionaries to refer to for definitions and/or spellings. Johnson’s volume took nine years to complete and was published in 1755 with a total of 42,773 words defined and it weighed about 22 pounds. Johnson’s was the ‘go...more

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Cathy DuPont Remy wrote: "I wouldn't say I remember - but John d. & I were both born on the 6 years (him 1916, me 1976 ... & my stepfather is 1946). John d...more
Apr 04, 2013 03:41pm

Remy Well, you get to a certain age (neither young nor old in my case) and you notice how time moves. It'll be a while before I'm 70, sure (if I'm blessed...more
Apr 09, 2013 10:34am

Sep 04, 2008 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, history, language

I have been meaning to read this book for years – I couldn’t even tell you when I first saw it or heard about it and thought it would be a good idea to read. Then I saw a copy in a bookshop that was going cheap and bought it on my way to my mother’s place. I showed it to her and then lent it to her. She told me she enjoyed it – so that made me keen to read it too. That was a couple of years ago – as you see, I was in no rush. I think mum even lent it to my sister to read.

This was a remarkable b...more I have been meaning to read this book for years – I couldn’t even tell you when I first saw it or heard about it and thought it would be a good idea to read. Then I saw a copy in a bookshop that was going cheap and bought it on my way to my mother’s place. I showed it to her and then lent it to her. She told me she enjoyed it – so that made me keen to read it too. That was a couple of years ago – as you see, I was in no rush. I think mum even lent it to my sister to read.

This was a remarkable book. It might have been a book that didn’t quite seem to know how to end – but I even liked that about it, perhaps because I was so delighted by it that I wasn’t sure I wanted it to end.

Winchester is a true story teller. He does explain an awful lot of what might appear to be extraneous material, but I found all of this utterly fascinating anyway, so wasn’t put off in the least. The book smashes together not just the story of a insane murderer – and so providing an interesting excuse to discuss 19th Century definitions of insanity, murder and the laws pertaining to these – but a remarkable range of other ‘events’ from that century and the early years of the next. Central to all this, of course, is also the story of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary and the lives of two central figures in the making of the big dictionary.

But thrown into the pot for good measure are also bits of the American Civil War, the part played by the Irish in that war, a discussion of the nature of lunatic asylums and even an incredibly sexy description of the naked, romping girls of Sri Lanka which I can only assume was paid for by the Sri Lankan Tourist Bureau:

“And there are the girls – young, chocolate-skinned, giggling naked girls with sleek wet bodies and rosebud nipples and long hair and coltish legs and with scarlet and purple petals folded behind their ears, who play in the white Indian Ocean surf and who run, quite without shame, along the cool wet sands on their way back home.”

The story of Minor, the American who is one of the two protagonists is a terribly touching story. (There is an interesting discussion about whether there can be ‘two protagonists’ in any one story – which makes a lovely digression and segue into the preoccupation with words and their meanings, both such important themes of this book.) Minor was a man tortured by demons and caught in a nightmare where only his work in finding quotations of words to be used in the OED offered him any measure of relief.

They say there are no atheists in fox holes – but I have found that the occurrence of the words ‘penis’, ‘penknife’ and ‘self-inflicted wound’ in a single sentence also has me turning to God and even calling out his son’s name in full.

The tale of the Irishman branded on the face with a ‘D’ during the Civil War had much the same effect. We tend to forget how much more ‘humane’ we have become in such a short time – the American Civil War wasn’t all that long ago, but behaviours like those described here, performed against soldiers of your own side, would never be tolerated today … at least, I hope.

I’m quite pleased with my prescience in relation to this book – pleased to have recommended it before having any idea what it would be like or what it would be about - other than the sketchiest of outlines. But prescient or not, I feel much better that I can recommend this wholeheartedly now in the certain knowledge it cannot really fail but to delight.

If you get a chance to listen to the talking book version – read by the author – I would highly recommend that too.
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Apr 09, 2011 Kinga rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, mad-men, words-words-words

If you know me personally or almost personally, then you should be aware that I am quite mad. I have a heavy obsession with the alphabet, inventing bizarre systems that rule just about anything in my life and catalouging things. It is quite obvious that a book about a lunatic and creating Oxford English Dictionary would be a winner with me. And it was.
However, it wasn't perfect. Winchester performed some weird narrative experiments. For example, he started off with a really exciting scene, then...more

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Mar 18, 2009 Julie (jjmachshev) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-reads

The fascinating and poignant story of the Oxford English Dictionary and two similar, yet very different in circumstance, men whose lives would likely never have crossed except for their work on the OED. Although I had heard the story of the 'lunatic American doctor' who contributed reams of information for the OED, I still found myself riveted to the sad story (and occasional salacious detail in my opinion). As a word geek myself, I have a love/hate affair with dictionaries and yes, there are ti...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Marvin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Simon Winchester gave us a lot of information in this unusual tale of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. So why do I feel it was stretched out even at 200+ pages. Well, it really is a bit of a thin story . Aside from the story of Dr. Minor's crime and his resulting mental incarceration, not much happens. Surely, I found the history of the English dictionary entertaining but I couldn't help thinking that Winchester may have exaggerated the importance of Minor's contributions. After all,...more

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Oct 22, 2010 Danae rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a perfect example of a book that I wish had been written by David McCullough. I gave it three stars based primarily on potential--the story itself was very interesting; the writing was more like 2 stars. I cannot believe this man has been able to make his living as a writer on two continents. His main problem was being redundant, giving the general impression that his target audience was not-too-bright fifth graders (I don't need every little coincidence and connection pointed out 5 time...more

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Valerie I found his use of the word 'very' (twice in one paragraph!) distracting. Haven't been able to get past page 16 because of the amount of times he used...more
Jul 02, 2012 01:04am

Elliott Hambrook It has been some time since I read the book, but I remember that as a nearby resident of Crowthorne, I read the book quite thoroughly.

I think Simon Wi...more
Jun 11, 2013 05:17pm

Nov 04, 2007 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: language geeks

I absolutely loved this book. The fundamental story was really interesting and consistently kept me excited about reading the next page. It is basically about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and specifically two of the key players in that venture: James Murray (the Scottish editor working in England) and W. C. Minor (the American contributor living in an English insane asylum). It doesn't pretend to tell the full story of the OED, but it does give a really good feel for what...more I absolutely loved this book. The fundamental story was really interesting and consistently kept me excited about reading the next page. It is basically about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and specifically two of the key players in that venture: James Murray (the Scottish editor working in England) and W. C. Minor (the American contributor living in an English insane asylum). It doesn't pretend to tell the full story of the OED, but it does give a really good feel for what the project was really like. Not easy. There were several things that made the story so engaging.

One of the things I really liked about the story that's a little odd is that I felt it resonates quite a bit with modern project management issues. Initial estimates on the size of the project, including both the literal size of the published work (number of books), the amount of time required to accomplish it, and the number of people needed to carry it out were woefully low. The project grew and grew and grew, taking about 70 years in total. This is so like project estimation (especially in software projects) nowadays, and this amused me. But it also reminded me that estimation in an unknown domain is actually really hard. One more project-related point of interest is that the OED creation was basically a big open-source project, just like a lot of current software like Linux and so on. There were some core employees working in Oxford, but the bulk of the work was done by volunteer contributors who were distributed all over the UK and the US. This is just cool. It did lead to some kind of funny problems: Murray had to deal with some confused contributors, who didn't grasp the magnitude of the work they were to be doing and would send frustrating letters, for instance.

There were several other small things that were cool. I enjoyed the basic history of dictionaries in English (reminding us that some languages, like Czech, don't actually have single-language dictionaries)--this came partially out of the colonial idea that English was a pure and natural candidate to be the world's language. I also enjoyed Winchester's description of Minor's time in the Civil War, as he does a pretty good job of evoking the right feel in relatively small space. Finally, there are words and full definitions peppered throughout, and of course these were enjoyable.(less)

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Jul 01, 2010 Cindy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, british, history, own, whack-a-doo

Part of my May/June British Invasion theme.
Also titled "The Professor and the Madman" in the US.
___________________

What a weird and fascinating story! A bit of history of lexicography, a smattering of the history of the OED, a smidge of Civil War history, a touch of 19th/turn of 20th century mental health practices, and a skosh of US/UK relations. And a whole lotta philology as well!

In 1879 when James Murray took over the editing duties for the compilation of what would become the Oxford English...more Part of my May/June British Invasion theme.
Also titled "The Professor and the Madman" in the US.
___________________

What a weird and fascinating story! A bit of history of lexicography, a smattering of the history of the OED, a smidge of Civil War history, a touch of 19th/turn of 20th century mental health practices, and a skosh of US/UK relations. And a whole lotta philology as well!

In 1879 when James Murray took over the editing duties for the compilation of what would become the Oxford English Dictionary - a process that took 70 years to complete - he renewed the call to language loving volunteers to submit interesting quotations of English words. In effect he was accessing the hive-mind to help the unbelievably massive project of documenting all known and past usages of English words, as well as their etymologies, and history of change as documented through quoted references.

One of the most prolific of these volunteer documentarians is Dr. William Chester Minor, a Yale-trained, U.S. Civil War veteran living in the English village of Crowthorne in Berkshire. The odd twist is that Dr W.C. Minor was at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, as an intelligent, wealthy, respected inmate, but one who was paranoid and undoubtedly insane. Dr. Minor in one of is nightly paranoid rages murdered an innocent man, George Merrett, in London.

And, as it turns out, the editor James Murray, didn't realize for several years that one of his most valued contributors was certifiably insane. The book chronicles, however briefly, the backgrounds of Murray and Minor, and the remarkable circumstances that led to their friendship and prolific working relationship.

This is a seriously fun book for word lovers. It's a very quick read at just under 200 pages, and often leaves the reader wanting more detail, more background and more references. I was okay with the brevity of the work, as it's not meant to be a history of the OED, just the tale of one small part, and two men whose lives intersected in the most unusual way.(less)

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Jul 23, 2008 JuliAnna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-memoirs, history

I love intellectual history and books about books. I am increasingly taken with the 19th century and the British gentlemen scholars who (on the wings of Empire) conducted their research independently of academic institutions and the need to generate an income. And, I won't go into my long standing interests in madness and etymology (although not necessarily in combination). "The Professor and the Madman" weaves together all of these themes in a book that unfortunately never becomes more than a m...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Helen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: culture, historical, lost-interest, non-fiction

What should have been an interesting story somehow made tediously dull. I got around half way through, then skimmed to the end. I thought I'd love this, since I enjoy finding curious new words and discovering their origins.
I was all set for my journey into lexicography, with dictionary at the ready. However, the tone of the writing and the unnecessary peppering of the text with words even Stephen Fry uses only on special occasions does not convey a love of language, it's just irritating smart-ar...more

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Feb 08, 2009 Juliana rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, history

I enjoyed geeking out about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, and that's definitely what attracted me to this book. I was fascinated by the description of Minor's methodical process of collecting examples of words, and in fact could have read more of this type of thing. That being said, I had the problem I often have with popular nonfiction-- I'm a bit too much of an academic. I want footnotes, I want to know why the writer is saying this is what happened and what their support is for...more

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Mar 11, 2009 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bibliophiles, logomaniacs, OEDites everywhere-- this is a GREAT word-addled romp. Who knew that the history of English dictionaries would be so riveting? The professor and the madman are respectively the editor of the OED and a brilliant and an institutionalized contributor. The narrative is the story of their lives, their phililogical and etymological overlap, and the completion of the OED. There's lots of spine-tingling victorian mystery with the murderous madman-- but in the end, in spite of...more

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Nov 11, 2007 Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this book is pretentious. I guess if you have to write a book about the OED, it has to be written in a really pretentious, loquacious manner with lots of stupid words like "loquacious". that being said, it is an interesting story.

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May 06, 2009 Bruce rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: history buffs, word lovers

Trevor has a great rave of this book, and of Simon Winchester. Like all of Trevor's reviews, this one is also well worth reading... http://apps.new.facebook.com/good_rea..., but I'm more lukewarm on Winchester's work than my Goodreading friend. Hard to say why, exactly. I loved The Story of English PBS companion volume, postively ate up The Smithsonian Book of Books, am a devotee of William Safire's column on language and the whole NYT section devoted to grammar, and am fascinated by semiotics,...more Trevor has a great rave of this book, and of Simon Winchester. Like all of Trevor's reviews, this one is also well worth reading... http://apps.new.facebook.com/good_rea..., but I'm more lukewarm on Winchester's work than my Goodreading friend. Hard to say why, exactly. I loved The Story of English PBS companion volume, postively ate up The Smithsonian Book of Books, am a devotee of William Safire's column on language and the whole NYT section devoted to grammar, and am fascinated by semiotics, linguistics, and the whole kit and caboodle of communication generally. Moreover, the principal subjects of this book -- Sir James Murray, the longtime editor and the man largely responsible for the creation and shape of the 1st OED edition, and William Chester Minor, the institutionalized yet diurnally functioning paranoid schizophrenic/erotomaniac who contributed some 10,000 or so entries -- are sympathetic and largely fascinating people. Simon Winchester does a great job of interleaving entertaining digressions to extend the story.

So why no passion? Here's the best I can come up with. First, digressions notwithstanding, I found the story itself to be fairly thin. After a bit of background on dictionaries in general and brief, if compelling biographies, we have Sir Murray shepherding, cheerleading, sorting, writing, and organizing this Victorian-era wikipedia-like (thanks, anonymous volunteers!) effort while voila, madman Minor with nothing but time and shelves of rare books is able to achieve some personal redemption in what he produces. The two gentlemen move from correspondence to friendship, grow old, and eventually die. The OED is eventually completed, three cheers, what-what. Winchester, who by all indications has done some extensive research, is nonetheless forced to make up much of the stage action since the lexicographic correspondence itself apparently doesn't convey much of the daily trials and travails of these two intellectuals and since their writings were less attitudinal than categorical in nature. Put briefly, there's little in the way of conflict here. You can't have drama without conflict, and lack of drama can make for unengaging reading.

Second, Simon Winchester does his own credibility a disservice by repeating twice (and with inconsistent quotes) as true a story about the first meeting of Murray and Minor which he later reveals to be false. I don't mind the attempt to generate interest via literary sleight-of-hand, but the inconsistent versions made me wonder what other quotes or narrative bits were fabricated (and by whom). Further, it annoys me a bit to consider that in no small part thanks to Winchester's 2-1 bias in favor of romantic apocrypha, I'm more likely to remember the disinformation than the more prosaic reality.

Finally, I got this book out of the library at the same time as Winchester's follow-up on the history of the OED itself (which I have now started). The books share similar cover photos, and I made sure to read the preface to the newer book to make sure I wasn't simply toting home two editions of the same work. No, indeed, the preface of The Meaning of Everything assures the reader, the newer work is a companion volume. Yet, of necessity, The Professor and the Madman relates much of the story of OED's creation, which, knowing I had the presumably more intensive follow-up waiting in the wings, it made me cringe a bit to read. Now I realize that one should only review a work on its own merits, and yet I'm pretty bummed to realize that my fears of incipient redundancy were pretty dead on as only 40-50 pages into the OED history I am finding lengthy passages that the author has copied verbatim. I can't help wishing that instead of churning out another 200 page bit on OED's history, Winchester had instead assimilated his Murray-Minor story into the larger OED context and produced a new, consolidated 300-350 page work.

So there you have it. I like Winchester's style (especially his understatement regarding the peotomy) and am on-board with the subject matter. Yet I wish he had invested the effort to produce one great book instead of two above-average ones. Trevor, please forgive me. I'm sure I'll enjoy the heck out of Krakatoa.(less)

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Jan 01, 2011 Amathonthe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: koleksi

Baca buku ini jadi semakin menghargai kamus. ternyata susah juga ya membuat sebuah buku kumpulan kata-kata yang memberikan banyak arti.. apalagi kontribusi dari OED seroang penderita Skizofernia..

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Sep 30, 2008 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-favorites

I read this book for the first time several years ago, and I continue to pick it up and reread it every so often. This book marked the start of my love affair with words.

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Jan 22, 2009 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The idea of taking a word, tracing its roots, finding its first origins in print, and writing multiple definitions that perfectly capture its meaning--sound like a daunting task? Now imagine doing this with EVERY word in the English language. That was the task taken up by the men and women who compiled the Oxford English Dictionary. There were many fascinating characters in this real-life drama, but Simon Winchester focuses his lens on perhaps the most compelling of all--Dr. William Minor. This...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Mara Shaw rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Piffle! Brilliantly researched, thorough discussion, worth a read if you're a logophile. I enjoyed the history when Winchester stuck to the facts. But his omniscient eye into his characters' emotions enraged me, particularly because he overstates the emotions of his Victorian characters based on the information at hand, yet wrote these without differentiating them from the facts he presents, as if he had some insight that he entirely lacked. For example, he extemporates: "...in the letter we can...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Chana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british, history, memoirs-and-biographies, received-through-bookcrossing, world-literature, ny-times-notable

Incredible story of the making of the English Oxford Dictionary and one of the major contributors, Dr. Minor, a mentally ill man in a lunatic asylum.
I have always had a love for dictionaries and take a peculiar pride in the Oxford English dictionary as one of the great accomplishments of men. My son owns a copy of the two volume reduced print set. We pull it out sometimes on Shabbos when we are sitting around the table and the meaning or derivation of an English word comes into question. I love...more

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Mar 16, 2010 Tom rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This book details the strange life of Dr. William Chester Minor who was an American surgeon, educated at Yale and who served in the Union Army in, among other places, the battle of the Wilderness. Clearly a gifted man, he apparently develops schizophrenia and his mental state declines. While in London, England, in his delusional state, he shoots and kills an innocent man. He is tried for this and deemed to be insane. Incarcerated in Broadmoor Insane Asylum he spends almost 40 years. He is sustai...more

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Aug 20, 2010 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

Some of the best stories are ones that are true, because the experience of the story itself is enhanced by constant sanity checks as the reader has to remember, "Wait a minute, all this ridiculousness actually happened." But that's the way life is, it's a crazy mess of ridiculousness and converging circumstances, and sometimes that mess turns into a highly unlikely but fortuitous occasion, much like Dr Minor's incarceration in an institution for the criminally insane coinciding with Dr Murray's...more

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Jan 08, 2008 Casey Moore rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you like etymology, you should read "The Professor and the Madman." Etymology, the study of how words and language change over time, is not to be confused with epididymitis. Which occurs when a man's epididymis, the gummy tissue that connects the vas deferens to the testis, becomes inflamed and creates a relentless dull pain. I dabble in hypochondria from time to time and that fateful afternoon was no exception. Upon waking up with swollen testicles, I spent the better part of half an hour se...more

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Jan 04, 2008 Skylar Burris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, history

This book--part true crime, part literary history, part human interest story—-was difficult to put down. It tells the story of two of the personalities behind the making of The Oxford English Dictionary. One, the professor James Murray, was the editor of the tome. The other, Dr. W.C. Minor, was a major contributor to The OED, a former American army surgeon, and a raving lunatic. The Professor and the Madman also narrates the process of compiling The OED and throws in some fascinating etymology....more This book--part true crime, part literary history, part human interest story—-was difficult to put down. It tells the story of two of the personalities behind the making of The Oxford English Dictionary. One, the professor James Murray, was the editor of the tome. The other, Dr. W.C. Minor, was a major contributor to The OED, a former American army surgeon, and a raving lunatic. The Professor and the Madman also narrates the process of compiling The OED and throws in some fascinating etymology. This more “academic” portion of the work is written modestly enough that it should interest even those with only a passing curiosity for the English language. The chapter headings, which contain definitions of words appropriate to the chapter’s content, are an interesting touch.

Winchester is an able if not a masterful writer. There is nothing complex or poetic or particularly profound in his narrative, but he tells a fascinating story and captures the reader’s interest. I will offer two critiques, however, both of which relate to the author’s unskilled method of foreshadowing. Winchester would occasionally drop a hint that leaves the reader hanging, which is fine, if the reader has some concept that his whetted appetite will eventually be satisfied. But after dropping these hints the author would move on as though he had simply forgotten about them, leaving the reader little idea that he planned to reveal all later. (One such example is when the author mentions that only one word was ever lost from the OED. The reader immediately thinks in frustration, “What word?” But Winchester continues his narrative as if he has no intention of revealing the secret. Much later in the book the author mentions the fact again, and this time he reveals the word, after the reader has already given up hope of learning it.) Secondly, this inexpert foreshadowing also tends to obscure the chronology of the story from time to time. Despite these minor frustrations, however, the book is an excellent read.

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Nov 30, 2008 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, could-have-been-a-long-article

This book was interesting in a number of ways. The story has human interest--a mentally ill killer giving an assist to the biggest dictionary project in history. Winchester, as always, writes gracefully.

As with many books, though, I think making the story book-length was a stretch. This story would have been a fine lead article in The New Yorker. The publishing conventions require a book of a certain length, so that people will pay enough to justify the production costs.

Still and all, a good rea...more

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Jun 15, 2011 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, british-isles, modern-history, given-away

Moderately entertaining and a good story. Since this well to do prisoner was allowed an extensive library and wide ranging access to books it is interesting how the influence of class extended into the Victorian prison system.

Books like this, recognisable because they have a shortish title followed by a long explanatory subtitle seem to have become a well established part of the UK non-fiction scene. On the whole, and this book is no exception, I'm left with the feeling that there is a good essa...more

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May 09, 2011 Rita rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography

Interesting to read the story of the madman who contributed to the huge project of compiling the OED, and to learn how the OED came about, how it all was done, most complicated. All the hundreds of volunteers.

Perhaps I have gotten spoiled by reading too many excellently written novels, but Winchester as a writer leaves a great deal to be desired, does a lot of distracting things in the book [sweeping statements, contradicting himself sometimes from one page to the next, filling in too much detai...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Emma Glaisher rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Much that was fascinating in this book. I want to be a dictionary compiler! Mind you my last book was Moby Duck and I wanted to be a scientist exploring the Arctic...

My only real criticism is that he starts off with what he later explodes as a myth, so you read most of the book with that 'approaching' scene in your expectations. The truth is more interesting so I felt I'd been tempted in with an unnecessary lie. Also didn't like the (apparently completely unfounded) speculation about Minor and M...more

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“Any grand new dictionary ought itself to be a democratic product, a book that demonstrated the primacy of individual freedoms, of the notion that one could use words freely, as one liked, without hard and fast rules of lexical conduct.” — 5 people liked it

“And after that, and also for each word, there should be sentences that show the twists and turns of meanings—the way almost every word slips in its silvery, fishlike way, weaving this way and that, adding subtleties of nuance to itself, and then perhaps shedding them as public mood dictates.” — 2 people liked it

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