The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary - Couverture rigide

Winchester, Simon

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0198607024 ISBN 13 : 9780198607021

Editeur : Oxford University Press, 2003

Synopsis

The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

'The greatest enterprise of its kind in history,' was the verdict of British prime minister Stanley Baldwin in June 1928 when The Oxford English Dictionary was finally published. With its 15,490 pages and nearly two million quotations, it was indeed a monumental achievement, gleaned from the efforts of hundreds of ordinary and extraordinary people who made it their mission to catalogue the English language in its entirety. In The Meaning of Everything, Simon Winchester celebrates this remarkable feat, and the fascinating characters who played such a vital part in its execution, from the colourful Frederick Furnivall, cheerful promoter of an all-female sculling crew, to James Murray, self-educated son of a draper, who spent half a century guiding the project towards fruition. Along the way we learn which dictionary editor became the inspiration for Kenneth Grahame's Ratty in The Wind in the Willows, and why Tolkien found it so hard to define 'walrus'. Written by the bestselling author of The Professor and teh Madman and The Map That Changed the World, The Meaning of Everything is an enthralling account of the creation of the world's greatest dictionary.

Revue de presse :

teeming with knowledge and alive with insights. Winchester handles humor and awe with modesty and cunning. His prose is supremely readable. (New York Times Book Review)

exuberant, serious, funny, short, full, entrancingly readable. (Jane Gardam, The Spectator)

compelling reading. Winchester is excellent on the theory and practice of lexicography (Sunday Times)

Irresistible (The Independent)

Simon Winchester's book is a fascinating catalogue of political wrangles, logistical conundrums and personal battles that underlay the work's creation. This book is a delightful curiosity (Zoe Green, Daily Telegraph)

Simon Winchester has told this story with a touch of human drama and with a true sense of the social history that surrounded the enterprise. (Stephen Wade, Contemporary Review)

A lively and largely informative chronicle of a still-staggering enterprise (Helen Zaltzman, Observer)

absorbing and entertaining (Thmes Literary Supplement)

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Oxford University Press
• Date d'édition: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0198607024
• ISBN 13: 9780198607021
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 286