A Dictionary of the English Language: An Anthology [L0114]

2007 PB in Gift-Worthy condition. Surprising, colorful, and long-forgotten entries from the 1755 'most famous dictionary in the history of the English language'. Samuel Johnson's best-known work, A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), is the most influential and idiosyncratic lexicon ever written and was used by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, the Brontës and the Brownings, Thomas Hardy and Oscar Wilde. This anthology includes 4,000 of the most representative, entertaining, and historically fascinating entries, covering subjects from fashion to food, science to sex, and given in full with original spelling and examples of usage from Shakespeare to Milton.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "This is the only dictionary one can read simply for pleasure. It's absolutely priceless and a must have on any bookshelf. Interesting how many of the definitions seem relatively modern but other words fascinating as they have fallen out of everyday usage and reflect a period long ago when the English language was in substantial transition. Hours of wonderful entertainment & erudition"; "There had been earlier English dictionaries, but none on the scale of Johnson's. In addition to giving etymologies, not the strong point of Johnson and his contemporaries, and definitions, in which he excelled, Johnson illustrated usage with quotations drawn almost entirely from writing from the Elizabethan period to his own time, though few living authors were quoted. His preface boldly asserts that the "chief glory of every people arises from its authors," and his book was his own claim to be ranked among them. He was pleased that what took the French Academy 40 years to perform for their language was accomplished by one Englishman in 9 years. It may have been his desire to fix the language by his work, yet he realized that languages do not follow prescription but are continually changing. Johnson did not work systematically from a word list but marked up the books he read for copying. Thus it is no surprise that some earlier dictionaries contain more words and that Johnson's has striking omissions ("literary" for one). Yet his definitions were a great improvement over those of his predecessors, and his illustrations from writers since the Elizabethan Age form an anthology and established a canon"; "The part of the book that should be read first and in its entirety is the superb introduction by David Crystal which gives a thorough historical perspective of the composition of the Dictionary and explains why it is such an Important landmark in English literature. Crystal also includes Johnson's own introduction and Boswell's various extracts concerning it from his monumental "Life of Johnson"."