Book Review: ‘The Dictionary of Lost Words’ reveals a lost narrative [watch]
The Dictionary of Lost Words by South Australian author Pip Williams was published to much praise last year. It’s a moving tale of how one woman uses and redefines words to articulate and validate her own experience.
When a literary luminary such as Thomas Kenneally declares that he is certain a “more original” novel “will not be published this year [2020]”, then you know you’re in for a good read.
‘The Dictionary of Lost Words’: Plot Synopsis
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 is based on true events, the central one being the compilation of Oxford University Press’s New English Dictionary (now the Oxford English Dictionary) by a team of lexicographers led by Sir James Murray, and helped by all of his 11 children.
Words for women
Esme grows up in the Scriptorium, headquarters of the very first Oxford English Dictionary. As her father and the other editors’ assistants manually sort through slips of words and definitions on the table, she collects the words they drop and discard.
Soon, she realises that the dictionary will largely exclude the words of women and the working classes. So begins a mission to collect the words used by these underrepresented groups.
The novel follows Esme from early childhood to a few years before her death. It tracks the end of the Victorian Era as the Suffragette Movement and the First World War bring change to British society and the close-knit dictionary community. As Esme navigates love and loss, friendship and her own politicisation, she redefines words to better reflect her own experience.
Pip Williams on ‘The Dictionary of Lost Words’
Memorable Quotes
- “I realised that the words most often used to define us were words that described our function in relation to others. Even the most benign words — maiden, wife, mother —told the world whether we were virgins or not. What was the male equivalent of maiden? I could not think of it […] Which words would define me? Which would be used to judge or contain?”
- “As grandfather said, it will be a long game. Play a position you are good at, and let others play theirs.”
- “If you want opinion to define what something means then you should at least consider all sides. Not all sides have a newspaper to speak for them”
More About the Author Pip Williams
Pip Williams lives in the Adelaide Hills in Australia. The Dictionary of Lost Words is her first novel. She engaged in meticulous research to bring to life the dictionary, the real men and women involved and the words that were both in it and left out of it.
Williams is also the author of One Italian Summer, an account of her family’s longing for the good life, their subsequent move to the Italian countryside, and what they learnt.
Will You Enjoy This Book?
The Dictionary of Lost Words is an ambitious attempt to fictionalise a well-known academic and political idea, the idea that words’ meaning is not inherent but constructed, and that meaning is often sexist and classist.
It’s also a touching meditation on the meaning of motherhood and whether motherhood is inherently biological.
The novel will appeal to word lovers, feminists, mothers, academics fond of constructionism and anyone who’s ever found the English language inadequate at conveying their lived reality. Since it’s set at the turn of the century, it will also appeal to lovers of historical fiction.
The Dictionary of Lost Words is published by Vintage Books and is available at Exclusive Books.
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