The Dictionary of Lost Words

 

by Pip Williams (read by Pippa Bennett-Warner)
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Publisher's Summary
 
Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip and, learning that the word means “slave girl,” begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men.

As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so she must leave the sheltered world of the university and venture out to meet the people whose words will fill those pages.

Set during the height of the women’s suffrage movement and with the Great War looming, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. Inspired by actual events, author Pip Williams has delved into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary to tell this highly original story. The Dictionary of Lost Words is a delightful, lyrical, and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words and the power of language to shape the world.

©2021 Pip Williams (P)2021 Random House Audio

 

Interesting thesis. Lousy execution.

While I agree with the author's thesis (he who controls the language, controls the narrative), the story was boring. I kept wondering where it was headed. Usually I don't mind a book that meanders along, but then again, at least I have a hint of where we are headed and the scenery along the way is interesting and engaging. The author could have made her point in half the time and perhaps even given us a more powerful story. I think that the only reason I finished the book was because I wanted to see where the author went with it.