Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The Dictionary of Lost Words” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

The Dictionary of Lost Words

Pip Williams

4.24 · Rating details · 9,224 ratings · 1,459 reviews

In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxf ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 384 pages

Published April 6th 2020 by Affirm Press (first published March 31st 2020)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The Dictionary of Lost Words, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Can't Wait Books of 2021

784 books — 2,027 voters

All the Ways We Said Goodbye by Beatriz Williams

Historical Fiction 2020

364 books — 521 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.24 ·

Rating details

· 9,224 ratings · 1,459 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of The Dictionary of Lost Words

Feb 23, 2021 MarilynW rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, netgalley-2021

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

It never occurred to me all that went into compiling early dictionaries. Male scholars worked for decades to compile the words and definitions to go into the first Oxford English Dictionary, words and definitions whose final acceptance was at the discretion of the editors of the volumes. This story describes the garden shed in Oxford where real life lexicographer, James Murray, built a Scriptorium, a shed behind his house, where he and his team of sc The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

It never occurred to me all that went into compiling early dictionaries. Male scholars worked for decades to compile the words and definitions to go into the first Oxford English Dictionary, words and definitions whose final acceptance was at the discretion of the editors of the volumes. This story describes the garden shed in Oxford where real life lexicographer, James Murray, built a Scriptorium, a shed behind his house, where he and his team of scholars could work on amassing words and definitions. Murray and his wife had eleven children who were very involved in Murray's work.

The fictional part of this story concerns, Esme, whose father is widowed at Esme's birth. Esme's father is a member of Murphy's team and he brings Esme to work with him each day. As a youngster, Esme spends time under the big table of the workers and often gathers discarded word slips and hides them away in a chest in the room of house servant Lizzie. Lizzie, although just eight years older than Esme, is a combination of mother, companion, and maid to Esme, especially once Esme is banished from the Scriptorium for interfering with the work there.

Later, an unofficial dictionary is compiled of all the words that Esme gathers from the discards of the Scriptorium, and from women and poor people of Oxford and surrounding areas. Words that wouldn't be considered for the Oxford English Dictionary because they are just spoken, not written (since they are used by people who would never learn to write) and words that are considered too crude or offensive to be included in the dictionary. The means to this dictionary being created is one of my favorite parts of the story and concerns Gareth, another of my favorite characters, along with Lizzie. Towards the end of the book, Gareth writes one of the saddest letters I've ever read.

I thought the work of the lexicographers and assistants was fascinating and this book encouraged me to research the creation of dictionaries further. As the author's note mentions at the end of the story, many of the people and events in this book were real. But Esme, her father, her friend Gareth, and servant Lizzie were fictional. I admired the characters of Lizzie, Gareth, and Esme's father for what seemed to be hard work during lifetimes of trying circumstances.

Esme too had her trials, often due to choices she made, but I felt like the story was brought down by her constant sadness and long bouts of depression. The character of Lizzie, losing her mother to death at the age of eleven and her siblings to orphanages and becoming a lifelong servant at that young age, is a much more compelling story, for me. This is a girl/woman whose life consists of arising long before her masters, to get things ready for the household, working more than sixteen hours a day, not being able to go to bed until after everyone else in the household. This is her life, day in, day out, as long as she is able to get out of bed and do it again. Constant sleep deprivation and no life of her own, no chance of a husband or family and yet, Lizzie's attitude to life is an inspiration.

Lizzie's story ties in well with the part of the story about suffragists attempting to change things for women. But Lizzie wants no part of that, she is practical and knows that she can only be thankful not to be living on the streets. Esme, even though she is working class, has her loving dad, a home, eventually a job working in the Scriptorium, yet she never seems happy. If only the fictional character of Esme could have learned how to better cope with her blessings, I might have enjoyed her part in the story more. I appreciated getting to learn about this time in our history and the real people who worked to give us the Oxford English Dictionary. I give this story 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars. This was a great buddy read with DeAnn and Mary Beth.

Publication: April 6, 2021

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC. ...more

flag 221 likes · Like · see review

Sep 28, 2020 Nilufer Ozmekik rated it really liked it

This is brilliantly well- researched, detailed, refreshing journey emphasizing the importance of words, empowerment and raising the voices of women during the World War I with layered, impeccably crafted, memorable true characters who changed the world with their special and remarkable contributions.

I have to admit: this book needs your patience, attention, full focus. Especially first third is overwhelmingly slow but when you get into the story and lose yourself in the precious world of words This is brilliantly well- researched, detailed, refreshing journey emphasizing the importance of words, empowerment and raising the voices of women during the World War I with layered, impeccably crafted, memorable true characters who changed the world with their special and remarkable contributions.

I have to admit: this book needs your patience, attention, full focus. Especially first third is overwhelmingly slow but when you get into the story and lose yourself in the precious world of words, connecting with Esme and the preparation process of first Oxford dictionary, your curiosity takes over and you get more excited to learn more by becoming part of the world and linguistics.

Esme is a little girl, creating herself a secluded universe at a garden shed of Oxford called “ Scriptorium”. Her invisible, unheard, unnoticed place was beneath the sorting table where his father and a loyal team of lexicographers work on collecting words for the first Oxford Dictionary.

One day, Esme finds a slip of paper fluttered on the floor. The word “bondmaid” is written on it. She hides the paper, stashing at Lizzie’s trunk. ( Lizzie is the maid working for them, raising her after her mother passed away)

Later she finds other tossed slip of papers so stashing them is turning into her special game. Later she realizes each word she stashed relating with women unrecorded. That gives her idea to form her own dictionary consists of lost words mostly about women’s world!

With the suffrage movement’s rising and Great War’s looming, a new history starts written itself with the unrecorded, abandoned, neglected words!

It’s compelling, well- developed, great work enlighten us about the unknown pages of history and magical power of true words.

I highly recommend it to historical fiction and based on real characters fiction fans. It’s quite informative, intense, realistic novel to read and absorb slowly.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/ Ballantine for sending me this digital copy of incredible arc in exchange my honest review. ...more

flag 127 likes · Like · see review

Mar 29, 2020 Keiran Rogers rated it it was amazing

This is one of the best books I have ever published.
A cracking plot about how the word Bondmaid was stolen from the Oxford English Dictionary, but also a book of gorgeous characters. This had me crying like a baby at the end.

flag 97 likes · Like · see review

Feb 17, 2021 Liz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: best-of-2021, netgalley

Lovely. Wonderful. Sublime. Delightful. Enchanting. Charming.

This is one of those books whose premise just enthralled me. Esme’s father was one of the lexicographers working on the Oxford English Dictionary. She grew up understanding the power of words. As she gets older, she also starts working on the dictionary. First running errands, but eventually being given more responsibilities.
Fair warning, the first part of the book is a bit slow. It’s not until Esme takes it into her head to collect w ...more

flag 81 likes · Like · see review

May 01, 2020 Marianne rated it it was amazing

“Some words stretched so far back in time that our modern understanding of them was nothing more than an echo of the original, a distortion. I used to think it was the other way around, that the misshapen words of the past were clumsy drafts of what they would become; that the words formed on our tongues, in our time were true and complete. But everything that comes after that first utterance is a corruption.”

The Dictionary of Lost Words is the first novel by English-born Australian author, Pip “Some words stretched so far back in time that our modern understanding of them was nothing more than an echo of the original, a distortion. I used to think it was the other way around, that the misshapen words of the past were clumsy drafts of what they would become; that the words formed on our tongues, in our time were true and complete. But everything that comes after that first utterance is a corruption.”

The Dictionary of Lost Words is the first novel by English-born Australian author, Pip Williams. Ever since she was a little girl, sitting under the sorting table at her Da’s feet, in the loftily-titled Scriptorium (the old iron shed lined with pigeonholes in the back garden of Sunnyside), Esme has loved words.

Under the direction of the editor, Dr James Murray, and with several other assistant lexicographers, her Da, Henry Nicoll was compiling a dictionary: the Oxford English Dictionary. The words, their meanings and their use in quotes came on slips of paper, to be sorted and debated (sometimes quite vociferously) and included or rejected.

“Whenever we came across a word I didn’t know, he would read the quotation it came with and help me work out what it meant. If I asked the right questions, he would try to find the book the quotation came from and read me more. It was like a treasure hunt, and sometimes I struck gold.”

The slips might be discarded, the word rejected if the definition was incomplete, or a duplicate. Esme hated the idea that words would be lost. And sometimes slips were dropped. Esme began to save these words. They would go into her Dictionary of Lost Words.

This unusual, inquisitive little girl wasn’t going to fit the middle-class wife-and-mother mould. At school: “If all the children at St Barnabas were a single word, most would be examples of the main definition. But I’d be some rarely used sense, one that’s spelled strangely. One that’s no use to anyone.” Esme was happiest when working in the Scriptorium.

Eventually, “I had a desk and would be given tasks… I would serve the words as they served the words.” She later came to realise that words would not be included for various reasons, but the one that most troubled her was that the word did not appear in print, even if it was commonly used.

“I’m sure that there are plenty of wonderful words flying around that have never been written on a slip of paper. I want to record them. … Because I think they are just as important as the words Dr Murray and Da collect. … I think sometimes the proper words mustn’t be quite right, and so people make new words up, or use old words differently.”

But it was when she was exposed to a charismatic suffragette that she began to notice how the process was skewed against women, the poor and the disenfranchised. And if motherless Esme wasn’t brave enough to take their type of militant action, her female mentor could suggest a less blatant way.

Williams populates her novel with a marvellous cast of characters: quirky, diligent, loyal, nasty, loving and wise, they’re all there, and emotional investment in Esme and her friends is difficult to resist. She deftly demonstrates the power of words: sometimes, just one will bring a lump to the throat, a tear to the eye.

Her extensive research is clear from every page: so much interesting information, both historical and philological, is woven into this wonderful tale. Especially fascinating to any lover of words is the process of making a new dictionary, illustrating the reason it takes so long. Laugh, cry and incidentally, learn a lot in this brilliant debut.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Affirm Press.
...more

flag 60 likes · Like · see review

Oct 12, 2020 Annette rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: english-heritage, historical-fiction-1800s

The first Oxford English Dictionary was created in 1901 only by men. Archives have proved that there were “female volunteers, assistants, spouses, none of whose contributions were acknowledged.” Where there any words “these scholarly men might have chosen to omit from their version of the English language?” This question becomes the premise for this story.

Oxford, 1887. Esme’s father is “one of Dr. Murray’s most trusted lexicographers,” and she doesn’t have a mother to care for her, thus a blind The first Oxford English Dictionary was created in 1901 only by men. Archives have proved that there were “female volunteers, assistants, spouses, none of whose contributions were acknowledged.” Where there any words “these scholarly men might have chosen to omit from their version of the English language?” This question becomes the premise for this story.

Oxford, 1887. Esme’s father is “one of Dr. Murray’s most trusted lexicographers,” and she doesn’t have a mother to care for her, thus a blind eye is being turned, when she is in the Scriptorium - under a table. As a word on a piece of paper slips off the end of the table, she catches it and saves it. When she questions what happens to the words that are left out, she is told, “If there isn’t enough information about them, they’re discarded.”

With time she becomes an assistant, now working ‘above’ the table. Esme’s ambition grows. She wants to collect the words on her own, and not just wait for them to come by mail to the Scriptorium. She fills her pockets with slips and pencils and ventures to the Covered Market on Saturdays. Mabel, who sells used wares, fills Esme with plenty of words, even with some which may raise one’s eyebrow or give a good chuckle.

The rule of dictionary is if a word is commonly spoken, but not commonly written, then it will not be included. Esme argues this rule.

Enjoyable atmosphere. I enjoyed very much the description of the Scriptorium. A shed at the back of the house filled with scholars, who have their routine, which gives a unique atmosphere. Also, the circle of friends. When Esme goes to Bath for some time to assist their friend in her research, who is an expert in history and respected for her knowledge. She creates a circle of scholars who come to her house and others on regular bases. The atmosphere of the afternoon tea gatherings is very special.

The story begins with Esme as a young curious and bubbly girl, then she becomes closed off due to some events. Being surrounded by loving people helps her heal and she becomes approachable again and thriving. You can feel this process of her transformation.

What makes this story very special, it is its uniqueness. Like no other story ever told before. The search for words and defining them. And lovable characters you warm up to very quickly. With a deep grasp of words a unique story is woven evoking time, place and character, saturated with beautiful prose.

Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ...more

flag 66 likes · Like · see review

Jan 27, 2021 Neale rated it it was amazing

So many times the blurbs on the front and back cover of novels are nothing but hyperbole, the novel failing to live up to exaggerated expectations, but Tom Keneally’s blurb,

“There will not be this year a more original novel published. I just know it.”

This is not hyperbole.

Esme’s mother died, so her father must look after her through the day. Esme is hiding under the placing table, her normal place of residence while her father and fellow lexicographers write the first edition of the Oxford Eng ...more

flag 57 likes · Like · see review

Feb 20, 2021 DeAnn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021, netgalley-2021

3.5 lexicographer stars

This book is highly researched and opened up a new world to me with the origins of early dictionaries. I never thought much about how a dictionary was put together and updated.

Our main character is Esme, and the book follows her life from a young child through adulthood. She is raised by her father and he is a lexicographer. She frequently joins him at work in the Scriptorium – a repurposed garden shed – filled with scholars researching words, derivations, and definitions ...more

flag 59 likes · Like · see review

Nov 03, 2020 Carolyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020, historical, australian-author, mystery

In her Author's Note, Pip Williams says that the idea for writing this book came from the non-fiction accounts of the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, which all ignore the contribution of women in this huge undertaking. Her research lead her to discover that there were female assistants, including the daughters of the chief editor James Murray, Hilda, Rosfrith and Elsie who all worked in the 'Scriptorium', a large tin shed in Murray's garden, in sorting, compiling and checking words In her Author's Note, Pip Williams says that the idea for writing this book came from the non-fiction accounts of the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, which all ignore the contribution of women in this huge undertaking. Her research lead her to discover that there were female assistants, including the daughters of the chief editor James Murray, Hilda, Rosfrith and Elsie who all worked in the 'Scriptorium', a large tin shed in Murray's garden, in sorting, compiling and checking words and quotations and sorting them into groups in pigeonholes ready for editing. Editor Henry Bradley's daughter Eleanor worked alongside him at a second office in the Old Ashmolean museum. Many woman also sent in quotations for the words, including sisters Edith and Elizabeth Thompson who provided thousands of quotations and editorial assistance from the first to the last volume.

In writing this novel, Ms Williams has addressed this lack of recognition of women by highlighting the role they played in the production of the dictionary over the fifty years it took to compile. Her fictional character Esme, first appears as a little girl sitting quietly under her widowed father's desk collecting words that are lost or discarded. As she grows she comes to understand the importance of words and their meanings and also realises that many words in common usage which are important to women are not being included in the dictionary. This starts her on her own journey of discovery and collection of words significant only to women. Her friendship with a female suffragette and the loss of young men to war will also awaken her to the role of women in her world. As Esme becomes an assistant herself and takes on more responsibilities for the dictionary, she is supported by the real life women who played a role in putting it together, notably Murray's daughters and Edith Thompson with whom she has a close life-long relationship.

The novel is a little slow to get going, but once it does both Esme's story and that of the dictionary become absorbing reading. Esme's life is not easy as she suffers significant losses but through it all she never loses her love of words. For a non-fiction companion piece I recommend The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester (the US edition is called The Professor and the Madman), an account of the fascinating relationship between James Murray and one of his contributors who was the inmate of an asylum for the insane.

A photo from Wikipedia (author unknown) of James Murray in the Scriptorium in front of the pigeonholes used to sort and store the words and quotations

...more

flag 58 likes · Like · see review

Aug 12, 2020 Gloria Arthur rated it liked it

⭐️3 Stars⭐️
The Dictionary of Lost Words has had so much attention and the cover is quite stunning. I did find the first half of the book slow and a little boring, but because it had such good reviews I kept reading and was so pleased I did. The second half of the book was most enjoyable and it was quite an eye opener into the history of the Oxford Dictionary.

The book is a fictional story revolving around the creation of the first Oxford dictionary. Esme is a young girl who likes to spend her chi ...more

flag 41 likes · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2021 Gumble's Yard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021

Now shortlisted for the 2021 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction

Bondmaid. It came back to me then, and I realised that the words most often used to define us were words that described out function in relation to others. Even the most benign words – maiden, wife, mother – told the world whether we were virgins or not ………. I looked out of the window towards the scriptorium, the place where all the definitions of the words were being bedded down. What words would define me?

The book takes ...more

flag 37 likes · Like · see review

Oct 09, 2020 Ingrid rated it liked it

The history of the Oxford English dictionary is central in this book. A novel has been written around it, in which women's suffrage and the First World War are discussed. Unfortunately I wasn't moved by it in any way.

...more

flag 35 likes · Like · see review

Apr 19, 2020 Nikki rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical-novel

I really wanted to like this but my pet peeve with historical novels is when the writer can't stop themselves putting modern sensibilities into the actions, words and motives of the characters. It tosses you right out of the world the writer is trying to recreate. In this novel, it felt as if the writer had more than one ideological barrow to push and in the end, I kept losing the sense of the story and felt like I was reading a woke sermon.
My other criticism is the inconsistencies in the main ...more

flag 32 likes · Like · see review

Jun 27, 2020 Marianne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Bolinda audio version is read by Imogen Sage, and is an absolute joy to listen to.
“Some words stretched so far back in time that our modern understanding of them was nothing more than an echo of the original, a distortion. I used to think it was the other way around, that the misshapen words of the past were clumsy drafts of what they would become; that the words formed on our tongues, in our time were true and complete. But everything that comes after that first utterance is a corruption.”

T The Bolinda audio version is read by Imogen Sage, and is an absolute joy to listen to.
“Some words stretched so far back in time that our modern understanding of them was nothing more than an echo of the original, a distortion. I used to think it was the other way around, that the misshapen words of the past were clumsy drafts of what they would become; that the words formed on our tongues, in our time were true and complete. But everything that comes after that first utterance is a corruption.”

The Dictionary of Lost Words is the first novel by English-born Australian author, Pip Williams. Ever since she was a little girl, sitting under the sorting table at her Da’s feet, in the loftily-titled Scriptorium (the old iron shed lined with pigeonholes in the back garden of Sunnyside), Esme has loved words.

Under the direction of the editor, Dr James Murray, and with several other assistant lexicographers, her Da, Henry Nicoll was compiling a dictionary: the Oxford English Dictionary. The words, their meanings and their use in quotes came on slips of paper, to be sorted and debated (sometimes quite vociferously) and included or rejected.

“Whenever we came across a word I didn’t know, he would read the quotation it came with and help me work out what it meant. If I asked the right questions, he would try to find the book the quotation came from and read me more. It was like a treasure hunt, and sometimes I struck gold.”

The slips might be discarded, the word rejected if the definition was incomplete, or a duplicate. Esme hated the idea that words would be lost. And sometimes slips were dropped. Esme began to save these words. They would go into her Dictionary of Lost Words.

This unusual, inquisitive little girl wasn’t going to fit the middle-class wife-and-mother mould. At school: “If all the children at St Barnabas were a single word, most would be examples of the main definition. But I’d be some rarely used sense, one that’s spelled strangely. One that’s no use to anyone.” Esme was happiest when working in the Scriptorium.

Eventually, “I had a desk and would be given tasks… I would serve the words as they served the words.” She later came to realise that words would not be included for various reasons, but the one that most troubled her was that the word did not appear in print, even if it was commonly used.

“I’m sure that there are plenty of wonderful words flying around that have never been written on a slip of paper. I want to record them. … Because I think they are just as important as the words Dr Murray and Da collect. … I think sometimes the proper words mustn’t be quite right, and so people make new words up, or use old words differently.”

But it was when she was exposed to a charismatic suffragette that she began to notice how the process was skewed against women, the poor and the disenfranchised. And if motherless Esme wasn’t brave enough to take their type of militant action, her female mentor could suggest a less blatant way.

Williams populates her novel with a marvellous cast of characters: quirky, diligent, loyal, nasty, loving and wise, they’re all there, and emotional investment in Esme and her friends is difficult to resist. She deftly demonstrates the power of words: sometimes, just one will bring a lump to the throat, a tear to the eye.

Her extensive research is clear from every page: so much interesting information, both historical and philological, is woven into this wonderful tale. Especially fascinating to any lover of words is the process of making a new dictionary, illustrating the reason it takes so long. Laugh, cry and incidentally, learn a lot in this brilliant debut. ...more

flag 27 likes · Like · see review

Sep 03, 2020 Sally Hepworth rated it it was amazing

ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT

flag 27 likes · Like · see review

Mar 29, 2020 Freya rated it it was amazing

This book is a historical fiction gem based on real events. The premise is just so uniquely compelling, not to mention important.

Esme grows up in the world of the Scriptorium, where lexicographers are piecing together the first Oxford Dictionary. They are all men, of course, and the words that make the cut reflect their values and experiences.

Naturally, at the time, women led very different social lives to their male counterparts, rich with their own vocabulary and linguistic conventions – almos ...more

flag 24 likes · Like · see review

Apr 28, 2020 Kylie Porter rated it it was amazing

Wow, wow, wow.... Just loved this novel. I have always had a fascination with dictionaries and words so this title really jumped out to me. Loved the idea of a book about the compiling of a dictionary and the role of a lexicographer and researchers. Also a fabulous look back at a time when the world was changing for women and the roles they had in life.
I didn't want the book to end.... Which would have to be a ringing endorsement of a great read. Highly recommended if you love the development o ...more

flag 24 likes · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2021 Jannelies rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, five-stars, netgalley2021

Where to begin to tell you about this wonderful and heartwrenching story? Maybe at the end - I recommend to read the author's note first. It will especially give readers who have no previous knowledge about the OED, a good start. And o yes: try and find the movie The Professor and the Madman, based on the book The Surgeon of Crawthorne by Simon Winchester. The movie is excellent and when reading the book it helped me visualise 'the Scrippy' and other places.
The author did a formidable job in cre ...more

flag 30 likes · Like · see review

Apr 12, 2020 Lee rated it it was amazing

Five of the biggest stars ever.

Random question: do you read the way you eat? I know I do – voraciously, enthusiastically, a bit too quickly and often with a glass of wine on hand. I know my Mum does too – slowly, thoughtfully, mindfully and without the wine. I thought of Mum as a reader when I started this book. A few pages in I thought: “Mum would love this.” (My love of words and the English language comes from her). Then I thought: “It’s 400 pages long, it will take her months.” And then a bi Five of the biggest stars ever.

Random question: do you read the way you eat? I know I do – voraciously, enthusiastically, a bit too quickly and often with a glass of wine on hand. I know my Mum does too – slowly, thoughtfully, mindfully and without the wine. I thought of Mum as a reader when I started this book. A few pages in I thought: “Mum would love this.” (My love of words and the English language comes from her). Then I thought: “It’s 400 pages long, it will take her months.” And then a bit further into the book I thought “Yikes, it’s got the C word and the F word in it…. I can’t give it to my mother!!”

This is a book about many things: loss (so much loss), women’s rights, family, people who become like family, war… but at its heart it is about words. Where they come from and what they mean. Author Pip Williams was thinking about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary (as you do) and about how the included words were very much man-chosen and man-defined. She wondered what happened to the words that were rejected, to the women’s words of the time and decided to write a fiction book with that in mind, while drawing on the real history of the writing of the OED.

We meet our glorious protagonist Esme in 1886 when she is six years old and motherless and spends much of her time under the desk at her father’s work. Da works for Oxford University Press as a lexicographer, working out of a shed in Dr James Murray’s backyard. (Da is fictitious but the shed and Dr Murray are not). Being good with words, Dr Murray renames his shed the Scriptorium aka the Scrippy and it becomes Esme’s second home. It is here that she encounters her first ‘lost’ word – on a slip of paper falls to the floor. There is a word on it that will not be appearing in the dictionary. Esme wonders if that means the word will be forgotten and so takes to saving all the lost words she finds. She also becomes a word hunter, seeking out unfamiliar / local / lower class / female-only words and becomes their guardian.

On day 3 of reading the book my daughter asked me why it was taking me so long to finish. I replied that it was because I was reading every single word. (As indicated previously, I am a fast reader who generally skims parts of novels because I don’t need the extra details/descriptions/fluff that most authors include and editors allow). Few authors compel me to read every word – JK Rowling and Stephen King are two – but that’s what Pip Williams has done with her first ever novel. Hats off to you Ms Williams! The writing is SUPERB, the characters are authentic and I love the nods to Australia (most unexpected in a novel about the first edition of the OED).

And I’ve decided that I will be passing it on to Mum to read, telling her in advance about the language. I think she’ll be okay with it, bearing its context in mind. (The C word has been around for hundreds of years and apparently Chaucer used it in some of his writing). In keeping with the spirit of the contributors to the first OED, I went looking for a quote on the subject. The history of the C word “shows us the word itself holds no real power, unlike the people who object so passionately to its usage.” Josephine Livingstone (2018)
https://newrepublic.com/article/14871...

...more

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

Jan 28, 2021 Judy rated it it was amazing

What a great debut novel for Pip Williams! This is a novel about the development of the Oxford English Dictionary, and traces the life of a young girl, Esme, who grew up in and later worked in the Scriptorium where the dictionary was written, and the continuous development of the dictionary. Esme's mother died and so Esme accompanied her father to work every day and played under her father's desk while he worked on the dictionary. She was fascinated with words and the context in how they were us What a great debut novel for Pip Williams! This is a novel about the development of the Oxford English Dictionary, and traces the life of a young girl, Esme, who grew up in and later worked in the Scriptorium where the dictionary was written, and the continuous development of the dictionary. Esme's mother died and so Esme accompanied her father to work every day and played under her father's desk while he worked on the dictionary. She was fascinated with words and the context in how they were used. In the Scriptorium words were written on slips of paper with some context of how they were used, and occasionally Esme would find one on the floor or find duplicates and slip them in her pocket. She then would save them in an old trunk that belonged to Lizzie, a maid. The first word she ever took was "bondmaid".

As Esme grows older she realizes that many words don't make it into the dictionary - words that are offensive and other words that are used primarily by women. Since the dictionary was written by men (although there were women who contributed information or who assisted them at times), many words didn't seem important to the men and were, therefore, omitted from the dictionary. This forms the groundwork for this story. Set against the backdrop of the suffrage movement and of World War I, change was coming to Europe, and here you see the changes through Esme's eyes and through her work at the Scriptorium, as well as her fascination with women's words.

This book was a wonderful book for me because I have always loved words and spent much time reading a dictionary as a child. I was fascinated with all the words, their meanings, how to use them, where they came from, and how they were pronounced and spelled. Wish I were a better wordsmith though and could turn my love of words into a way to make a living, but I've never been a great writer. This story was totally engaging and fascinating for me.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine through Netgalley for an advance copy. ...more

flag 21 likes · Like · see review

Mar 25, 2021 Val rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Touched
To sit in awe, to feel the joy that comes with knowing that a wondrous work of historical fiction is now a part of your soul.

This book follows the story of the lexicographers responsible for putting together the Oxford Dictionary. The author is very descriptive about the process, about the research and debate put into each line and the people who dedicated their lives to the compilation of words. It is critical for the reader’s understanding of the extensive multiple-year long process of Touched
To sit in awe, to feel the joy that comes with knowing that a wondrous work of historical fiction is now a part of your soul.

This book follows the story of the lexicographers responsible for putting together the Oxford Dictionary. The author is very descriptive about the process, about the research and debate put into each line and the people who dedicated their lives to the compilation of words. It is critical for the reader’s understanding of the extensive multiple-year long process of compiling the Dictionary, which can feel a tad bit tedious. It differs from other books on the subject in that it shines a light on the absence of women in the process. It is not a quick read, it is one that invites the reader to sit down and let the words be absorbed. It is a character-driven story and the character development is wonderful.

The main character is a curious and deeply loved young girl named Esme, who lost her mother at a very young age. Her father is a well-respected lexicographer at the Scriptorium and she grows up spending time under the desks as her father worked on the correct definitions of words. She not surprisingly also becomes enamored with words and finds that she is fascinated with their meanings. Sitting under the desks, she is surrounded by scholars selected for the Dictionary- who are all male and middle to upper crust. She comes to realize that there are so many words that have different meanings between men and women. Additionally, that many of the words that everyday people use are tossed aside and deemed unimportant. Esme rejoices in finding, writing down and saving these words to honor them and their use.

The book spans the Women’s Suffrage Movement, and the beginning of the Great War. It introduces and develops many different types of relationships, love and loss. The author’s choice of words… they are melodic and exquisite. The last few chapters had me sobbing. It is a deep and thoughtful read that left me touched. The power of the story is not in what happens, but in how the characters and their lives touch the reader’s heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House – Ballantine for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of the book. Pub date: April, 2021. ...more

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

Nov 21, 2020 Amanda - Mrs B's Book Reviews rated it liked it

Shelves: aww2020, 2020-books

*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com

A name must mean something to be in the Dictionary.’

Adelaide Hills resident Pip Williams released her debut fictional title, The Dictionary of Lost Words in March 2020. Published by Affirm Press, this novel gained plenty of pre release hype, with early readers taken in by unique history of the formation of one of our most staple items in the English language, the Oxford Dictionary.

The Dictionary of Lost Words introduces the central character of Esme, a child *https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com

A name must mean something to be in the Dictionary.’

Adelaide Hills resident Pip Williams released her debut fictional title, The Dictionary of Lost Words in March 2020. Published by Affirm Press, this novel gained plenty of pre release hype, with early readers taken in by unique history of the formation of one of our most staple items in the English language, the Oxford Dictionary.

The Dictionary of Lost Words introduces the central character of Esme, a child raised by her father, who consequently spends hours at the Scriptorium, a garden shed come office where a team of workers are collecting the words required to establish the first Oxford English Dictionary. While Esme observes the process carefully, remaining unobtrusive, she begins collecting lost and forgotten word slips. Esme knows the importance of these abandoned words from the Dictionary men. Esme resolves to ensure that these important words are not lost or buried. So begins the formation of the pivotal ‘Dictionary of Lost Words’, a book that holds just as much importance as the Oxford English Dictionary in Esme’s eyes. The Dictionary of Lost Words is a story that exposes the weight of words and above all it is a celebration of the English language.

Topping the ‘hot list’ at the renowned Frankfurt Book Fair prior to its official publication, The Dictionary of Lost Words has won plenty of readers over since its release. With a number of fellow booklover friends rating Pip Williams’ book very highly, I was really looking forward to immersing myself in this novel. With an exquisite cover, a fascinating premise, an interesting historical baseline and a whole host of positive reviews to match, I couldn’t wait to finally read this title. Unfortunately this one was not a winner for me.

I will start on a positive note and state that I really thought I was going to like The Dictionary of Lost Words very much. The novel is set to a firm chronological historical timeline that branches from 1886 through to 1989, which is quite an expansive time period. I will say that although The Dictionary of Lost Words is ambitious in scope, Pip Williams managed to pull off the era focus of her novel very well. I really enjoyed the references to key historical events and influences of the time. Pip Williams highlights women’s rights, the influence of the Great War, societal trends, class issues, family arrangements, educational rights and political issues. There is also a strong glimpse into the very interesting world of lexicographers. The overarching theme of written words, language and phrases was also utilised very well by the author.

Esme is the lead who dictates a great deal of the action in The Dictionary of Lost Words. I did admire her enterprising actions, ingenious attitude and fighting spirit. Esme is a fictional creation by the author, but there are a number of key players in this novel who are based on real life figures. For some reason I didn’t engage with the narrative or the characters as much as I had hoped to. It was often a laborious process getting through this book and I’m not entirely sure why this was the case. My interest increased a touch towards the latter stages of the novel, which helped to redeem The Dictionary of Lost Words. I’m not sure everything aligned as well as it could have and I found it quite dry in places. However, with any less than satisfactory experience I have with a book, I will often encourage readers to still approach this novel with an open mind, you may find you are with the majority and The Dictionary of Lost Words may be a story you come to love.

The Dictionary of Lost Words is book #121 of the 2020 Australian Women Writers Challenge

...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Jul 02, 2020 Lyn Elliott rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, australia

I’ve just made the mistake of writing a review direct into Goodreads and it’s crashed out leaving no trace.
In short, an interesting idea and setting, but I’m not as enthusiastic about it as many others who suggest it will win prizes.
It’s fine for a light read.

flag 21 likes · Like · see review

Apr 06, 2021 ScrappyMags rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed-by-me, kindle-read-done-finito, historical-fiction

...Welcome to the Edwardian Urban Dictionary!

Shortest Summary Ever: Words are Esme’s life as she grows up under her father’s desk where he and other men edit the Oxford English Dictionary - an arduous undertaking that dominates a lifetime. As pieces of paper fall to her by chance, she collects them; these treasured words fascinate and enthrall her. As she grows up and exposes herself to more in the world, new words capture her awe and enter her life - words used by women from all rungs of societ ...more

flag 39 likes · Like · see review

May 17, 2020 Beppie Keane rated it liked it

I enjoyed this novel's reflections on language; on who decides which words are important and which aren't, and the futility of prescriptive linguistics. I found the protagonist to be something of a blank slate -- like an unfilled dictionary slip, which I think was rather the point, in many ways. She exists so that the implied reader -- a white, middle-class woman of the late 20th/early 21st century -- can project herself onto a white, middle-class woman of the late 19th/early 20th century. There ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Dec 19, 2020 Jeanette Lewis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aussie-authors

At first I thought I was rereading a book of many years ago but as is mentioned by the author the book by Simon Winchester, The Surgeon of Crowthorne is the book that I remembered and as the author states it centred on the male domination of the Oxford dictionary. This book changes this perspective beautifully and introduces the reader to an alternative endeavour by the main female character of Esme Nicholl.

This is the era of the Women's Suffrage Movement, the struggle for women to be able to v At first I thought I was rereading a book of many years ago but as is mentioned by the author the book by Simon Winchester, The Surgeon of Crowthorne is the book that I remembered and as the author states it centred on the male domination of the Oxford dictionary. This book changes this perspective beautifully and introduces the reader to an alternative endeavour by the main female character of Esme Nicholl.

This is the era of the Women's Suffrage Movement, the struggle for women to be able to vote and to have a voice moving away from the domination of men. All at the same time of WW1.

Esme is being brought up ostensibly by her father, her mother having passed away, however it's the household staff that seem to give Esme guidance. Her development seems to be barely noticed by her father and it's only through the adopted Aunt Ditte that convinces her father that better quality schooling for his daughter is needed. Arrangements are made with dire consequences and after a real Aunt visits her at the school it's revealed that Esme is enduring abuse and starvation, she is brought back home. At the Scriptorium Esme is given small tasks but even working amongst men she remains innocent of males, possibly because intellectuals of this nature can be of a different calibre of maleness and so, one day to encounter a theatre nearby she discovers for the first time colour and excitement. Her lack of experience leads to an unfortunate incident with the consequences of mental depression as an aftermath.

The male dominance of Scriptorium and all endeavours regarding the development of the dictionary mean that it would be impossible for Esme to ever be on the same platform. This doesn't seem to be a real awareness for her but after encountering the colourful language of the theatre members and those from the market that she visits with Lizzie, household staff, Esme begins her own collection of words. Words, slang and obscene appear to have been initially unacceptable by the puritans involved in developing the dictionary. However, to Esme these are the words of everyday people and worthy of recognition. Gareth, the compositor from the Press becomes her love interest and just before he leaves for France to fight he proposes to Esme and not with a ring but a beautifully bound book of her words. ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Nov 04, 2020 Celeste rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical, books-about-books

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Dictionary of Lost Words is a beautiful book. But I was not prepared for the levels of heartbreak that were going to be present. I kept having to put the book down to try to find my way back into a more positive headspace. Had I read the book in any other stage in my life, I think I would have been able to divorce myself more easily from it and enjoy it more. However, everyone knows this year has been horr I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Dictionary of Lost Words is a beautiful book. But I was not prepared for the levels of heartbreak that were going to be present. I kept having to put the book down to try to find my way back into a more positive headspace. Had I read the book in any other stage in my life, I think I would have been able to divorce myself more easily from it and enjoy it more. However, everyone knows this year has been horrendous, and for some reason I was just unable to cope with the relentless hard knocks suffered by the poor protagonist. There was something about the bright tone of the book that made those blows even more terrible, and that’s what kept the novel from being a five star read for me. It was emotionally draining.

“Words define us, they explain us, and, on occasion, they serve to control or isolate us. But what happens when words that are spoken are not recorded? What effect does that have on the speaker of those words?”

I love the idea behind The Dictionary of Lost Words. After reading The Surgeon of Crowthorne, titled The Professor and the Madman in the U.S., Williams found herself intrigued by the history of the Oxford English Dictionary. But she walked away from the reading experience with more questions than answers, especially regarding the lack of female involvement in the OED endeavor. If there were so few women involved, could it be that words mostly used by the under-represented sex were left out? What about words mostly used by other marginalized groups? Were words considered vulgar or distasteful purposely ignored, as well? We know what is present in the OED, but what words were left on the cutting room floor is a mystery. And even for words that do appear in the OED, what meanings were omitted? Over the course of her research, Williams compiled what little information she could on the few women involved in the project, and decided to pen a work of fiction addressing her thoughts about some of these questions, and included as much true information as she could.

“Words are like stories… They change as they are passed from mouth to mouth; their meanings stretch or truncate to fit what needs to be said.”

The fictional character who is the protagonist of the story and the lens through which Williams conveys her questions is Esme, a girl whose father worked on the OED project. Esme was raised in the Scriptorium, the small workshop where the Dictionary was compiled. Words and their meanings were her obsession from a very early age, and it was wonderful to see how that love grew and changed as she herself did. But it seemed to me that the author piled way too much tragedy onto her. I know life was terribly difficult for women during the period in which this book is set, and that such suffering would have seemed minimal compared to what other women endured in reality. However, I didn’t go into this book expecting that level of heartache. Perhaps if I had, I would have engaged with the story in a much different way. But for some reason I expected charming and light, I ended up feeling blindsided.

“… words are meaningless without action.”
“And sometimes action can make a lie of good words.”

Even though I was emotionally unprepared for Esme’s story, I was completely captivated by her views on words and their importance. She felt that her calling was to preserve the words that others felt were unimportant, and I loved getting her inner thoughts regarding her motivations and why she loves words so fervently. I’ve always been enamored by words, and it was really gratifying to be inside the mind of someone who shares that passion. I thought she and her passion were very well conveyed, and I really enjoyed her as a character.

“What words would define me? Which would be used to judge or contain?”

The Dictionary of Lost Words is a beautiful treatise on the importance of all words, no matter who uses them. It’s beautifully written, and truly transported me to another time and place. While readers should be aware that the story is not for the faint of heart and can wreak havoc on the heart, it is absolutely worth reading.

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions. ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Feb 28, 2021 Angus (Just Angus) rated it really liked it

This was such a beautiful novel. Slow moving, but really well written.
Exploring the decades of work that went into the creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary, The Dictionary of Lost Words at its core explores the power of words and their three-dimensional meanings. Such a brilliant cast of characters that really moved me.

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

May 31, 2020 Alicia rated it liked it

I enjoyed this book but it has a remote, detached feel. Scenes of direct confrontation were regularly avoided and referred to retrospectively, giving the narrative a passive energy. While it is good practise to allow the reader to fill in the gaps and help create the story in their minds, readers want to SEE certain key confrontations that result in turning points in the narrative. Maybe this was a deliberate tonal decision by the author to illustrate women's passivity generally as described by ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Apr 28, 2020 Samantha Lin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: time-4-5-hours-medium, bookception, favourites-contemporary

Wow.

I picked up this book because I was intrigued by the cover and the concept, and because I’d allowed myself three books during my lockdown trip and didn’t have a third in mind.

I first read it in bits, because work has been very full-on. Then I read it in larger bits, because words are magical and I work with words anyway, so it counts as work, right? Then, for the last third of the novel, I stayed up into the wee hours, with non-stop tears and a stuffy nose (that I still have this morning). ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Pip Williams

320 followers

Pip was born in London, grew up in Sydney and now calls the Adelaide Hills home. She is co-author of the book Time Bomb: Work Rest and Play in Australia Today (New South Press, 2012) and in 2017 she wrote One Italian Summer, a memoir of her family’s travels in search of the good life, which was published with Affirm Press to wide acclaim. Pip has also published travel articles, book reviews, flash ...more

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Historical > Historical Fiction

410 users

Fiction

216 users

Historical

104 users

Writing > Books About Books

53 users

Feminism

44 users

Audiobook

26 users

Book Club

26 users

Adult

28 users

Romance

19 users

Adult Fiction

16 users

See top shelves…

Books by Pip Williams

One Italian Summer: Across the World and Back in Search of the Good Life

More…

Articles featuring this book

42 New and Upcoming Historical Fiction Novels

Care to travel to past times for some serious drama? Check out this season's biggest historical fiction novels and be transported to tales of...

Trivia About The Dictionary of...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The Dictionary of...

“I cannot overstate the benefits of a busy day for an anxious mind or a lonely heart.” — 10 likes

“It’s not about forgiveness, Essymay. We can’t always make the choices we’d like, but we can try to make the best of what we must settle for. Take care not to dwell.” — 3 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

The Dictionary of Lost Words

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

Books by Pip Williams

Articles featuring this book

Trivia About The Dictionary of...

Quotes from The Dictionary of...

See a Problem?

Preview — The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

The Dictionary of Lost Words

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

Books by Pip Williams

Articles featuring this book

Trivia About The Dictionary of...

Quotes from The Dictionary of...

new topic
Discuss This Book