Define Containing Books The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
| Title | : | The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary |
| Author | : | Simon Winchester |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 242 pages |
| Published | : | 2005 by Harper Perennial (first published September 28th 1998) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Biography. Humanities. Language. Writing. Books About Books. Historical. Crime. True Crime |
Simon Winchester
Paperback | Pages: 242 pages Rating: 3.84 | 93141 Users | 5753 Reviews
Explanation During Books The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.Identify Books In Favor Of The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
| Original Title: | The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Oxford English Dictionary |
| ISBN: | 0060839783 (ISBN13: 9780060839789) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Dr. William Chester Minor, Sir James Murray |
| Setting: | United Kingdom |
| Literary Awards: | Audie Award for Nonfiction, Abridged (1999), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for General Nonfiction (1998) |
Rating Containing Books The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
Ratings: 3.84 From 93141 Users | 5753 ReviewsEvaluate Containing Books The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
Professor James Murray was one of the primary editors of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Dr Chester Minor, was one of the primary contributors to the massive project. But Murray did not know that Minor was an inmate in an insane asylum. Simon Winchester - image from Andersons Bookshop The book tells their separate stories, how Murray rose to the prominence necessary to land this major position, how Minor emerged from a troubled, if well-to-do youth to commit a heinous and addled murder in3.5 stars.A lot of interesting and fascinating material covered in this book. But also some not so interesting and fascinating. If I had read it instead of listened to it, I don't know if I would've liked it or even finished it in a timely manner. But Winchester himself narrates and kept my attention. Lexicography and etymology seem incredibly boring. lol.I had no idea about any of this! I don't think I've ever even used or seen an Oxford English Dictionary, being an American. I only remember
I JUST WROTE A LONG EFFING REVIEW ABOUT WHY THIS WAS A TERRIBLE BOOK AND FREAKING GOODREADS DELETED IT BECAUSE I CLICKED OUTSIDE THE STUPID REVIEW SQUARE WHILE TRYING TO RING UP A CUSTOMER. I CAN'T REPRODUCE IT SO HERE ARE THE BULLET POINTS:*Winchester has zero grasp of psychology. He may be worse than Freud himself, and that's saying something. Winchester went so far as to suggest that Dr. Minor (the titular madman) could have avoided becoming schizophrenic if he'd just fucked his girlfriend as
People tend to juxtapose the idea of reading the dictionary with other activities as a means of underscoring how incredibly uninteresting and undesirable those other activities are. For example: I have to interact with Sean todayUGH. Id much rather read the dictionary.This is an effective comparison for good reason. Look, I love words as much as the next guy, but even I find reading the dictionary only slightly more fun than reading the phone book (Whats a phone book? ask all the millennials
This is the first pick of the 2016-17 season for my in-person book club. I had started it once before but it never really compelled me to pick it up and keep reading. As someone who teaches about research, I am actually quite intrigued by the history of how great reference works like the Oxford English Dictionary were put together, but I suspect that the author is making more out of the story of the primary editor and one contributor, a story that doesn't quite fill a book yet he makes it do so.
This is the fascinating, incredible, but true story of the 70+ year project to compile The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles - a biography of words that became The Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Not that youd know that from the title. I enjoyed the story more than the novelistic telling of it.Imagine when there was no dictionary when looking something up was impossible. Thats how it was for Shakespeare, hence his coinages are the ones that stuck, whether or not they were usual
A man goes insane, shoots another man to death and then helps write one of the first complete dictionaries. What an odd way to enter the academic world!And believe it or not, those aren't even spoilers! Simon Winchester gives us all that right in the title of his surprisingly riveting read The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.The idea of reading a book on the creation of a dictionary only sounded mildly interesting. In the hands
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