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Pip Williams

The Dictionary Of Lost Words Audio CD – Unabridged, 1 May 2020

by Pip Williams (Author), Imogen Sage (Reader)

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Publisher Update: Based on listener feedback, we have updated the audio with corrected pronunciations. In 1901, the word bondmaid was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the word bondmaid flutter to the floor unclaimed. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others – that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. 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.

Language

English
Publisher

Bolinda audio
Publication date

1 May 2020
Dimensions

14.6 x 2.8 x 13.4 cm
ISBN-10

065566520X
ISBN-13

978-0655665205
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Product description

Book Description

In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

About the Author

Pip was born in London, grew up in Sydney and now calls the Adelaide Hills home. She is co-author of the book Time Bomb: Work Rest and Play in Australia Today (New South Press, 2012) and in 2017 she wrote One Italian Summer, a memoir of her family’s travels in search of the good life, which was published with Affirm Press to wide acclaim. Pip has also published travel articles, book reviews, flash fiction and poetry. In The Dictionary of Lost Words she combines her talent for historical research with beautiful storytelling. She has delved into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary and found a tale of missing words and the lives of women lived between the lines.

Imogen graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London). She performed in several theatre productions in London including Rebecca; Measure for Measure; The School for Scheming and Three Sisters. She made her MTC debut in Hay Fever playing Sorel Bliss. Imogen's screen credits include The Man Who Knew Infinity and Doctors, as well as the short film, The Understudy, which she also wrote. It had a successful run on the international festival circuit.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bolinda audio; Unabridged edition (1 May 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 065566520X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0655665205
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 14.6 x 2.8 x 13.4 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 764,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 760 in Women's Fiction About Mothers & Children
- 1,788 in Women's Fiction About Friendship
- 3,016 in Fictional Historical Biographies

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Top reviews from Australia

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Philomena the Wombat

Love, lexicography, loss: A voice not demanding we see the truth of our language, but whispering it

Reviewed in Australia on 30 April 2020

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Warning: Some spoiler alerts below:

I didn't think it would be possible to enjoy (and learn from) a better book on lexicography than Winchester's 'The Surgeon of Crowthorne': I was wrong.

The Dictionary of Lost Words is a stately walk through Victorian England's values, from a woman's point of view, but always with the gentle overlay of the Oxford English Dictionary's lexicography. The facts of the task of compiling the OED were fascinating, but more-so the philosophical questions central to this book - What defines 'validity' in a word? Must it have been written down? Does a tabloid newspaper coining a new word, constitute its having been 'written down'? Is slang acceptable? Is slang only acceptable after it's been in use for a time? Should profanities be included, and if not, why not? The protagonist, Esme has to address these questions, then in a profoundly chauvinistic society, she has to present and argue her case. Her 'lost words' are the oral vocabularies of women. Not a topic many men in Victorian England were interested in.

Pip Williams' portrayal of English as a changing language, and her recognition of its inbuilt sexism is fascinating. As Esme observes; Nearly every (polite) term for a woman (such as Miss, Mrs, maiden, harlot) informs the hearer of the virginity-status of the woman concerned... and none of the male terms do equally. Even the derogatory ones such as 'git' do not allude to a man's virginity status.
Then there are the words for women, which have no male equivalent - 'scold'. Blame encompassed in just one word.

As in real life, nothing happens quickly and with Esme's accidental death, some actions are left to those who come after. This may disappoint those who like all the loose ends of a story tied up before the final page. But these characters, for the most part, are based on real individuals.

Finally this is a love story - typical of the age. Love finally declared... too late, bound by the constraints of the society (which impose on Esme a belief she is not worthy of happiness in marriage), and ended too soon by the horrohs of WWI.

A wonderful book. The best I have read for years.
_______

I don't know who I wish I could have dinner with more.... Pip Williams, or Esme.

12 people found this helpful

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Susan Burrell

Words shape and mis-shape our perception of our world

Reviewed in Australia on 22 June 2020

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This is a well- crafted book, exploring the well- founded suspicion that, as in most things, it is the opinions and decisions of men in compiling the first Oxford English Dictionary, which thereby stifle and dismiss the lived experience of women - to our great loss. I particularly liked Esme’s insistence that the words of illiterate and uneducated women were as worthy of recording as those words that had made their way into print.

5 people found this helpful

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Dennis Rutzou

This is a very absorbing reading experience.

Reviewed in Australia on 15 September 2020

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I read this one a few months ago by mistake as I rarely read fiction so this was a real surprise for my wife. It's a great effort by a first time novel writer as she manages to intertwine two very interesting historical themes in the one narrative, namely the researching and writing of the Oxford Dictionary and the suffragette movement. No mean feat. I have recommended it to many of my friends and no one has come after my blood so far, so they must have liked it as well.

4 people found this helpful

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Melbourne Gal

Dedication to making a dictionary makes a good story!

Reviewed in Australia on 1 July 2021

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This was a fascinating story for a wordsmith like me. I find the origins of words and their connections with other languages fascinating, but this story told of their uses in history, related to class and gender in particular. The story conveys attitudes of its era, from the late 1800s to post WW1; women's rights playing quite a large part. I was actually surprised to read that some currently largely unacceptable words were in use by the 'lower classes' back then. Although there is a large focus on the making of a dictionary, the story of Esme is both uplifting and distressing, making for an excellent novel by Pip Williams.

2 people found this helpful

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Donné

What a pleasure, to read a book about dictionaries, from a women's perspective.

Reviewed in Australia on 1 July 2020

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So to all who recommended this thank you! This book was extraordinarily different. What a pleasure, to read a book about dictionaries, from a women's perspective, in difficult times for women. Loved that the novel was interwoven around real events. I never knew about Bondmaid being missed, and now I will always remember. Excellent read.♥️

4 people found this helpful

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*#*

A wonderful escape from the dreariness of script-for-movie-deal books.

Reviewed in Australia on 18 August 2020

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What a topic! Superb escape into another world with characters, settings and theme that are totally unexpected. So welcome after so much predictability in current writings. So much of our new choice is written in the hope of landing a movie deal; it is delightful and wonderful to rediscover the joy in reading a real book.

4 people found this helpful

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John Hunt

The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams up there with Simon Winchester!

Reviewed in Australia on 10 December 2021

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‘The Surgeon of Crowthorne’, as my favourite book on the English language, is now replaced by ‘The Dictionary of Lost Words’.

Pip Williams has scripted a highly believable narrative on the development of the Oxford English Dictionary and has magnificently bought all the characters, both real and imagined, to life.

I have carried with me since 1952 a Pocket Oxford Dictionary, a gift from my parents, and ‘bondmaid’ is well described.

Thank you Pip for an amazing debut novel, your descriptive use of words (I could smell and feel the Scriptorium) and your attention to detail. The love between Esme and Gareth was palpable! Congratulations - well done!

Reviewed in Australia on 7 September 2020

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A great read ,fiction based on fact, of the historical finding and collating of words for the first Oxford Dictionary.
I enjoyed the main character Esme who was collecting words that were either discarded by the men in the group or words that women used which were discarded also. She did her research in the markets where the lower classes worked.
There is a lot to say about this book which kept me glued to it however I felt the ending was a bit rushed although neatly tied together.

One person found this helpful

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W. A. R

A beautiful evocative read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 April 2021

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This is such a beautiful story. The history of words in the English Oxford dictionary was fascinating and I loved learning about the process involved in the Scriptorium.
The characters are wonderful- so warmly described; from Esme, who feels the responsibility for all of the discarded and unwanted words, to Lizzie who is there for Esme at every turn, to Mabel who provided some of the more ‘fruity ‘ words for Esme’s collection. All women who prove that their voices count as much as the next man.
A truly evocative read that will stay with me for a long time.

20 people found this helpful

A Wilkin

Moving, empowering and reflective.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 May 2021

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This story made me laugh and cry and feel everything in between. I got absorbed into the life and days of Esme and followed her journey with eagerness. Pip Williams has given life to the women of the Oxford English Dictionary and to those whose words did not make the cut. All while taking into account the lives, hopes and fears of women during the start of the 20th century, the suffragettes and WW1. I highly recommend this book, and while this may not mean much from a stranger on the Internet I encourage you to give this book a shot. It is moving, empowering and reflective.

19 people found this helpful

E. Ward Thomas

The creation of the Oxford dictionary as a love story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 May 2021

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Prompted by the film "the Professor and the Madman" with Mel Gibson as the Editor of the Oxford Dictionary, I spotted this in a newspaper review. Written from the perspective of a daughter of the team, this is beautifully crafted and emotionally in love with both words and their origin. It is very evocative of the treatment of girls and the value of wealth and family by society at the time. A leader for the best of 2021 so far.

12 people found this helpful

C.Campbell

Language and power and the Oxford English Dictionary

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 May 2021

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This is such an easy book to read. A great story about love and family and grief and caring for one another. Set around the Scriptorium, first home of the OED, and the life of great lexicographer James Murray and his team of assistants. A real tear-jerker, it draws the reader in, perfect holiday book. Underpinned by a series of sobering reflections on how language is enabled and limited by gender, power and social class, against the backdrop of the suffragette movement. Highly recommended.

8 people found this helpful

MM Buyer

Unique and original. A good pleasant read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 October 2021

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Welcome to the world of the Scriptorium where the words of meaning, definition, pronunciation, and consequence that are deemed sufficiently important make their way into the Oxford English dictionary. For here we learn the art of 'lexicography' created in the late 17th century, from the Greek lexikos meaning 'of words' and ‘grapho’ meaning 'to inscribe, to write' and the agonising process involved at the Scriptorium of filtering the words of meaning.

The history of our words and the fictional story of Esme who must remain silent and invisible, in the place her father works as a lexicographer, are beautifully combined to tell a story of the discarded words and the dictionary of lost words.

Esme has an irrepressible hunger for knowledge about the origins of words and had fully assimilated with the work of the scriptorium, but somehow her mentors just missed it. One word fascinates Esme – “Bondmaid”, which she learns means "slave girl," but as she collects the discarded words Esme realises that a lot of the words and meanings relating to women's and common folks' experiences are often the ones that go unrecorded and discarded. To give the unspoken words a voice and meaning, Esme produces the “Dictionary of lost words” from the rejected scraps of paper found on the floor.

This is a unique and original story that was such an interesting read particularly when interwoven with true historical references and the history and process of lexicography. I liked it but did not love it. It just seemed to drag a bit too much in the middle of the book and the themes, whilst good separately, didn't gel together as much as they could have. It needed more menace or intrigue. However, the writing was beautiful but a 3.5 rating.

4 people found this helpful

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The Dictionary Of Lost Words Audio CD – Unabridged, 1 May 2020

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