Date Of Review: October 20, 2023
Review Left On GoodReads: Yes https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5762964062
The Dictionary Of Lost Words
Author: Pip Williams
Started: October 1, 2023
Finished: October 20, 2023
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 384 pages
Part Of A Series: Yes
Type Of Book: Physical
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49354511-the-dictionary-of-lost-words
Review:
I initially picked this book up because I was in research mode about memory loss. I have started loosing words - I know them, but can't say them - especially when thinking about them. It's been a slow process that started after a stroke, and continues to get worse with each Lupus and/or Rheumatoid Arthritis flare. But I digress.
The book made me have feelings. I have taught myself not to feel, nor react to feelings. Otherwise everyone would know I have such physical pain. This book though, ripped right through every barrier I erected to prevent feelings in any form to happen. I cried the moment Gareth died until the end of Ditties' letter to Megan. The fact this book could do that to me made it a 5 star rating instead of a 4 star rating.
At times this book got boring. It took me 20 days to read, when I can read longer books in a few days. The writing though was wonderful. It felt as if I was Esme when reading. The only other author who has ever gotten that from me is Stephen King. This was my 1st historical fiction book I have read in my life. It opened up a new avenue for me to read. Also, maybe not all celebrity book club choices are that bad & will keep that in mind when I look for books to read in the future.
Goodreads Description:
In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.
Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.
Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.
Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.