“The Dictionary of Lost Words” - Pip Williams

 

📖 This is my favorite type of book! Like “The Paris Library,” TDLW is a fictional account based on real events. Several characters are based on real life staff of the Oxford English Dictionary scriptorium. This novel is a tribute to the real women whose labors on the Oxford English dictionary were largely unseen and uncelebrated. TDLW is a well-researched blend of fact and historical fiction featuring a confluence of class, gender, and language themes.

📖 The novel is told from the POV of Esme, the daughter of a lexicographer at the Scrippy. It is essentially Esme’s coming-of-age story which parallels the development of volumes of the 1st edition of the OED.

📖 TDLW spans the time period from 1886-1928; WWI rages on during the climax of the novel. I thought the arrangement of the table of contents was intriguing. As far as setting goes, the novel is focused on Sunnyside in Oxford, England, and within the walls of the Scrippy.

📖 Though I am a lover of words and their histories, this book gave me great pause as I’d never given much thought before to the role of the lexicographer (person who compiles dictionaries) and their backgrounds/biases in shaping language. A recurring theme in TDLW was who decides what words/meanings are worthy of inclusion? The words of educated men took precedence over the language of the masses, and words pertaining to the women’s sphere were deemed of total unimportance. The men of the Scrippy wrinkled their noses at uncouth language, yet these words were undeniably in use and served a communicative purpose.

📖 The later stages of the suffrage movement led by Emeline Pankhurst forms a backdrop for highlighting class divisions. Williams incorporates the split between women of means and those without (like Lizzie, for whom a day off to protest was unthinkable because as a servant, she lacked autonomy).

📖 The outbreak of WWI forms another plot point. Williams writes of the early, misguided, youthful exuberance and romanticized notions of war which fell away as early volunteers did not return home. Esme was grateful for the increased responsibility she shouldered at the Scrippy, but the cost was great. 

The death rates were disproportionately higher among lower classes. Educated men became officers, though Williams points out that their education rarely qualified them to actually lead men. The White Feather movement makes a rather nasty appearance in TDLW as well (last seen in a Maisie Dobbs novel). 

📖 Williams writes that the OED 1st edition was a “flawed and gendered” text but also extraordinary in its scope. She encourages the reader to consider the biases of the older, white, Victorian-era men that resulted in that 1st edition.

I appreciated Williams’ nod to the diversity of influences on the English language. She includes the character of Ajit, an Indian soldier, who contributes the word “cushy” (derived from the Hindi “khush”) to the OED.

Real life characters featured in TDLW include the Murray family, Edith and Betsy Thompson, and Eleanor Bradley. The location of the Scrippy on the Murray’s property, was also historically accurate. Williams notes further, that all the OED entries and quotes included in the novel, are real.

📖 The scope of this novel is itself a major undertaking. Williams traces the compilation of the 1st edition of the OED, yet focuses on words deliberately excluded from the compendium. Add to that, the suffrage movement and WWI, and it was quite the achievement to weave all these elements together in a cogent narrative that is neatly concluded in a satisfying epilogue.