Sol Luckman's Blog - Posts Tagged "henry-fielding"

Sol Luckman



Of all the anthologized American literature I devoured in my high school English classes, none stuck in my mind quite like, or quite as long as, Ambrose Bierce’s wickedly satirical masterpiece, THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY.



Putting aside any pretense to conformity or prudishness on my part, I’m the first to admit this deliciously warped glossary—originally titled THE CYNIC’S WORD BOOK when it appeared in 1906—appealed primarily to the little devil in my wayward teenage self.

A master wordsmith in the comical vein of his good buddy Mark Twain (whom he uncannily resembled and to whom he is often compared), Bierce indelibly defined love as “a temporary insanity curable by marriage,” litigation as “a machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage,” patience as “a minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue,” and an egotist as “a person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.”

If you don’t find these definitions hilarious, or at least amusing, I advise you to stop reading now and go rustle up a sense of humor before it’s too late.

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