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Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus |
| Original language | |
| English | |
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THE DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS
In 1901, the word "Bondmaid" was discovered missing in 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.
When she is five, Esme hides beneath the table where all the words are sorted. The words are written on slips of paper no larger than a post card. One day a slip flutters to the floor and no one claims it. The word is "Bondmaid." Esme rescues it and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her only 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 and as she grows older, she realises that some words are more important than others, that women's words and women's experiences can often go unrecorded. She begins to collect words for her own dictionary - the dictionary of lost words.
Set in a time when the women's suffrage movement was blossoming, and the destructive power of the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals another narrative, hidden behind a history written by men. As the lives of these two women develop and entwine, it becomes clear that Lizzie has lived between the lines of Esme's story, just as Esme has lived between the lines of the Dictionary. Delightful, beautifully written and deeply thought-provoking, this is historical fiction at its best.
Pip Williams was born in London and grew up in Sydney. She has spent most of her working life as a social researcher and is the author of two books, including ONE ITALIAN SUMMER (Affirm Press, 2017). Her creative
non-fiction has been published widely. DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS is her first novel. Pip lives in the Adelaide Hills with her partner, two boys and an assortment of animals.
DIE SAMMLERIN DER WoeRTER
Deutsch von Christiane Burkhardt
[HC Diana 04/2022]
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.
When she is five, Esme hides beneath the table where all the words are sorted. The words are written on slips of paper no larger than a post card. One day a slip flutters to the floor and no one claims it. The word is "Bondmaid." Esme rescues it and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her only 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 and as she grows older, she realises that some words are more important than others, that women's words and women's experiences can often go unrecorded. She begins to collect words for her own dictionary - the dictionary of lost words.
Set in a time when the women's suffrage movement was blossoming, and the destructive power of the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals another narrative, hidden behind a history written by men. As the lives of these two women develop and entwine, it becomes clear that Lizzie has lived between the lines of Esme's story, just as Esme has lived between the lines of the Dictionary. Delightful, beautifully written and deeply thought-provoking, this is historical fiction at its best.
Pip Williams was born in London and grew up in Sydney. She has spent most of her working life as a social researcher and is the author of two books, including ONE ITALIAN SUMMER (Affirm Press, 2017). Her creative
non-fiction has been published widely. DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS is her first novel. Pip lives in the Adelaide Hills with her partner, two boys and an assortment of animals.
DIE SAMMLERIN DER WoeRTER
Deutsch von Christiane Burkhardt
[HC Diana 04/2022]
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Book
Published 2020-03-01 by Affirm Press |