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What Members Thought
I’m one of those people who subscribes to word of the day emails. I love words - their history, their use, their multiple meanings, their connotations. So I was all over this historical fiction set during the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary. I had no idea it took so many years and so many people.
That would have been a novel in itself, but this novel goes deeper to tell the “untold” story of the words that were omitted because they were common or vulgar, or worst of all, because they we ...more
That would have been a novel in itself, but this novel goes deeper to tell the “untold” story of the words that were omitted because they were common or vulgar, or worst of all, because they we ...more
A wonderful story of the writing/composing of the Oxford English Dictionary, seen from the feminine perspective. Many words were excluded from the work because there was no written reference for them. Many of these missing words were used by working class folk, particularly women. Some of these words were considered vulgar by the middle-class white male lexicographers working on the enormous task of cataloguing the English language. Esme, our heroine, realizes the importance of these lost words
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This could have been a great book if the reader was able to connect with the main character or any of the characters for that matter. More effort was placed on getting the reader to understand the "slips"than the people.
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Really 4.5 stars. I loved this story of Esme and her lifelong study of words and her struggle to find her place in the world as a woman.
May 21, 2021
MaryAnn Clarke
marked it as to-read
Feb 15, 2022
Nuvaira
is currently reading it
Jul 01, 2025
Caron Garliepp
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Feb 11, 2023
Sharyn Flanagan
marked it as to-read
Feb 15, 2023
Lorie
marked it as to-read
