BOOK: The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester, 242 pages
also known as The Surgeon of Crowthorne

Nonfiction Five 2010; Our Mutual Read; Bibliophilic Challenge

Imagine how the first dictionary was written. How do they find all the words without leaving any out? I mean, all the words. It turns out to have been a many decade-long (seventy) process, to produce the Oxford English Dictionary. In this book, Winchester documents an interesting aspect of the making of this famous dictionary - Dr William Minor, one of the most consistent and prolific contributors, who lived in an asylum in England for the criminally insane for most of his adult life.

The book covers several stories - Dr Minor, his years in the American civil war, Professor James Murray and his role as main editor, the history of dictionary writing before the OED, life in an asylum, mental illness, the murder of George Merrett, and the dictionary itself. I liked the Victorian times, and how Winchester included so much information, without feeling like overload. Each chapter begins with a pertinent word's listing from the OED, giving people like me, who have never read from the OED, an idea of what it was like.  My only complaint is that by including so much extra information, Winchester sometimes inserted a random fact that just seems out of place, and inserted his views or biases of people or ideas. Nymeth discussed this in detail this week as well. My example was this one, in discussing Murray's friendships.

One was a Trinity College, Cambridge, mathematician named Alexander Ellis, and the other a notoriously pig-headed, colossally rude phonetician named Henry Sweet - the figure on whom Bernard Shaw would later base his character Professor Henry Higgins in Pygmalion, which was transmuted later into the eternally popular My Fair Lady (in which Higgins was played, in the film, by the similarly rude and pigheaded actor Rex Harrison). p37

Bam! Rex Harrison never saw that sucker-punch coming! Was he rude and pigheaded? I never knew that was common knowledge but I don't think it added to the story Winchester was originally telling. That sentence stopped me in my tracks for all the information in it and the judgments. But, that was a small aside in an otherwise interesting book that tries to give some honour to the murdered, wrong place wrong time George Merrett and his role in the making of the dictionary. (Without this murder, Minor would never have been in an asylum with no treatment and so much time on his hands to be able to contribute like he did.)

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also reviewed: nymeth at things mean a lot, lori at she treads softly,

BOOK: The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald, 123 pages

Bibliophilic Challenge; Booker shortlist 1979

Very short novella about a woman, in 1959 England, who decides to open a bookshop, to ensure "that she existed in her own right". She had lived in the small town for almost ten years, after her husband had died. Ah, but small towns are fickle things, and she encounters some obstacles that she really can't do much about. It's a bit of a sad story, with some interesting characters, and a peek at a life in a different time and place.

The writing is what stands out, because the words are used carefully, and describe a place and people very well, and are used sparingly. Florence isn't the book lover that you'd hope for in a book about a bookshop, but there is a reference to Lolita, as she has to decide if she will carry the book, if it is okay to sell in the small town. However, the book is just too short to get attached to any characters. It's an okay read for me, with a few surprises along the way.

Some lines I noticed and particularly liked:

She drank some of the champagne, and the smaller worries of the day seemed to stream upwards as tiny pinpricks through the golden mouthfuls and to break harmlessly and vanish. p21

She would have liked to have been instrumental in passing some law which would entail that he would never be unhappy again. p47

The teapot basked in front of it, the room grew close, and the difference in age between Christine and Florence seemed less, as though they were no more than two stages of the same woman's life. p65


also reviewed by:
Robin at A Fondness for Reading
Jodie at Estella's Revenge
Susan at You Can Never Have Too Many Books
Eva at A Striped Armchair




I managed 9 novels this January, I really thought I could make it to ten. This year I blame reading a big chunk of The Woman in White, but not finishing it, and since I had started The Jade Peony in December, I couldn't count it either. I had fun though, trying to get the pretty gold badge. The books read in January for NaJuReMoNoMo include:


1. Poppy Shakespeare - Clare Allan
2. Crossfire - Miyuke Miyabe
3. Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4. Snow Angels - James Thompson
5. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley
6. The Incident Report - Martha Baillie
7. I am Morgan Le Fay - Nancy Springer
8. The Spellman Files - Lisa Lutz
9. The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald

BOOK: The Incident Report by Martha Baillie

The Incident Report by Martha Baillie, 197 pages

Bibliophilic Challenge; Giller Longlist 2009

This quiet book snuck up on me and was a delightful little read. Miriam, a librarian in a downtown Toronto library, writes her reports, 144 in all, that chronicle her lonely life, and events from the library. Lots of interesting characters, many seemingly disturbed or maybe just a little off, cause Miriam to refer often to the Manual for Conduct for Encounters with Difficult Patrons. (As an aside, more jobs should have manuals like that!)

Miriam's narrative voice was controlled, and careful, and hints as the way she tries to control her life. Gradually, the reports begin to include more of her sad past, and the more hopeful present. The writing was lyrical and poetic, and the fact that so much happened, spoken and unspoken, is surprising to me, after the fact. I am amazed, really, at how much story happened in such a short time, so many vivid characters described, and how much Miriam said by not saying it.

I'm making this the first entry in the Bibliophilic challenge, though while not strictly about books, it is about libraries and librarians, which is about reading. As a bonus, it's epistolary, a favorite style of writing. It certainly isn't going to cause anyone to decide to be a librarian - it's made me think about all the people in society who use the library.

also reviewed by:
melwyk the indextrious Reader