The dictionary of lost words. [book discussion kit]

Format:

Kit

Title:

The dictionary of lost words. [book discussion kit]

Other title(s):

Book discussion kit : Dictionary of lost words.

Author:

Williams, Pip, 1969- author

ISBN:

9781984820747

Edition:

2022 Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Edition.

Publication:

[Newberg, Oregon : CCRLS, 2022]

Physical Description:

10 books (xiv, 388 pages :map ; 21 cm), 1 discussion guide ; in container.

General Note:

Includes book club guide.

Plastic tote containing ten copies of the title.

Edition of book used: New York, Ballentine, 2022

Reese's Book Club -- cover.

"Originally published in Australia by Affirm Press in 2020"--Title page verso.

Summary:

"Before the lost word, there was another. It arrived at the Scriptorium in a second-hand envelope, the old address crossed out and Dr Murray, Sunnyside, Oxford, written in its place. It was Da's job to open the post and mine to sit on his lap, like a queen on her throne, and help him ease each word out of its folded cradle. He'd tell me what pile to put it on and sometimes he'd pause, cover my hand with his, and guide my finger up and down and around the letters, sounding them into my ear. He'd say the word, and I would echo it, then he'd tell me what it meant"-- Provided by publisher.

Local Note:

For use by CCRLS libraries only. Not available for inter-library loan.

Title Subject:

Oxford English dictionary -- Fiction.

New English dictionary on historical principles -- Fiction.

New English dictionary on historical principles. (OCoLC)fst01361405

Oxford English dictionary. (OCoLC)fst01363319

Subject(s):

Lexicographers -- Fiction.

Language and culture -- Fiction.

Women -- Fiction.

Fathers and daughters -- Fiction.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries -- Fiction.

Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction.

Oxford (England) -- Fiction.

Book discussion kit.

Geographic Term:

Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction.

Oxford (England) -- Fiction.

England -- Oxford.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Bildungsromans.

Biographical fiction.

Fiction.

Historical fiction.

Novels.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Newberg Public Library	BOOK KIT WILLIAMS	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * "Delightful . . . [a] captivating and slyly subversive fictional paean to the real women whose work on the Oxford English Dictionary went largely unheralded."-- The New York Times Book Review

"A marvelous fiction about the power of language to elevate or repress."--Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of People of the Book

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.

WINNER OF THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK INDUSTRY AWARD

Author Notes

Pip Williams was born in London, grew up in Sydney, and now lives in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia with her family and an assortment of animals. She has spent most of her working life as a social researcher, studying what keeps us well and what helps us thrive, and she is the author of One Italian Summer , a memoir of her family's travels in search of the good life, which was published in Australia to wide acclaim. Based on her original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives, The Dictionary of Lost Words is her first novel.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In Williams's exuberant, meticulously researched debut, the daughter of a lexicographer devotes her life to an alternative dictionary. As a young child in 1880s Oxford, Esme Nicoll is enchanted by the "Scriptorium," a shed behind their house where her father, Harry, works with a team to sort and select words for the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. When she finds the word "bondmaid" on a discarded slip and realizes the term refers to a female slave, Esme begins her own effort, the "Dictionary of Lost Words," stowing slips of words deemed unfit for the OED in a chest belonging to their servant, Lizzie. In her teens, Esme becomes further obsessed with which words make the cut--decisions primarily made by men--and listens to women in the marketplace, returning with suggestions for Harry. The ensuing bildungsroman carries the reader at a rapid pace through Esme's 20s, when she rubs shoulders with suffragettes, finds romance, and bonds with Lizzie while struggling to get her book of lost words printed. Though this sweeping effort takes some time to build momentum, the payoff is deeply satisfying. Williams's feminist take on language will move readers. Agent: Linda Kaplan, DeFiore and Co. (Apr.)

Kirkus Review

The Herculean efforts required to assemble the Oxford English Dictionary are retold, this time from a fictionalized, distaff point of view, in Williams' debut novel. Esme Nicoll, the motherless young daughter of a lexicographer working in the Scriptorium--in reality, a garden shed in Oxford where a team led by James Murray, one of the OED's editors, toiled--accompanies her father to work frequently. The rigor and passion with which the project is managed is apparent to the sensitive and curious Esme, as is the fact that the editorial team of men labors under the influence of Victorian-era mores. Esme begins a clandestine operation to rescue words which have been overlooked or intentionally omitted from the epic dictionary. Her childhood undertaking becomes a lifelong endeavor, and her efforts to validate the words which flew under the (not yet invented) radar of the OED gatekeepers gain traction at the same time the women's suffrage movement fructifies in England. The looming specter of World War I lends tension to Esme's personal saga while a disparate cast of secondary characters adds pathos and depth. Underlying this panoramic account are lexicographical and philosophical interrogatives: Who owns language, does language reflect or affect, who chooses what is appropriate, why is one meaning worthier than another, what happens when a word mutates in meaning? (For example, the talismanic word first salvaged by Esme, bondmaid, pops up with capricious irregularity and amorphous meaning throughout the lengthy narrative.) Williams provides readers with detailed background and biographical information pointing to extensive research about the OED and its editors, many of whom appear as characters in Esme's life. The result is a satisfying amalgam of truth and historical fiction. Who tells your story? Williams illuminates why women needed to be in the room where, and when, it's written. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Do words mean different things to men and women? That is the question at the heart of Williams' thoughtful and gentle first novel based on original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives and set during the women's suffrage movement in England. Motherless Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, the garden shed in the back of the house where her father works for the Scots-born lexicographer James Murray and his monk-like team, who are collecting words for the first edition of the OED. "Instead of storing shovels and rakes, the shed stored words." Some slips of paper carrying words are misplaced or discarded, and it is these "lost" words that Esme is determined to rescue from certain oblivion. The words that resonate with her range from the profane to the political. As Esme confronts sexism in her daily life, she finds solace in the meaning and significance of "women's words," which address the female experience. A lexicographer's dream of a novel, this is a lovely book to get lost in, an imaginative love letter to dictionaries.