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CLUB Unabridged
{Details

Narrator: Elizabeth Winchester  

ISBN: 0060799692  

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers  

Publication Date: October 2005  

Duration: 07:00  

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RENT Unabridged
{Details

Narrator: Elizabeth Winchester  

ISBN: 0060836261  

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers  

Publication Date: October 2005  

Duration: 07:00  

Selections:  1  

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BUY Unabridged
{Details

Narrator: Elizabeth Winchester  

ISBN: 0060799692  

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers  

Publication Date: October 2005  

Duration: 07:00  

}
$8.95

The compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, 70 years in the making, was an intellectually heroic feat with a twist worthy of the greatest mystery fiction: one of its most valuable contributors was a criminally insane American physician, locked up in an English asylum for murder. British stage actor Simon Jones leads us through this uncommon meeting of minds (the other belonging to self-educated dictionary editor James Murray) at full gallop. Ultimately, it's hard to say which is more remarkable: the facts of this amazingly well-researched story, or the sound of author Simon Winchester's erudite prose. Jones's reading smoothly transports listeners to the 19th century, reminding us why so many brilliant people obsessively set out to catalogue the English language. This unabridged version contains an interview between Winchester and John Simpson, editor of the Oxford dictionary. (Running time: 6.5 hours, 6 cassettes) --Lou Schuler --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

History
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Very interesting!

Submitted by Stacey Soibelman

As a person who loves words, this book was a plesant suprise. It was facinating and very detailed. The building of the first dictionary is something you realize that someone had to do but I never considered the stories behind the pulling together of the Oxford Dictionary. Excellent story.

The Professor and the Madman

Submitted by Anonymous

I loved this book. It is filled with details about the Oxford English Dictionary that you would not enjoy in a dry, academic book. If you like words and language, this is a book for you.

Professor and the Madman -A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

Submitted by Robert Morrow in Dundas,

If you enjoy excessive and somewhat stuffy verbage, you'll like this. Though the story is interesting, it could have been an article in Readers Digest. Perhaps the abridged version would be better. The author is in love with his writing and lets it show. He did a lot of research, some valid, some obscure, all of which he used in the book making it about 12 chapters too long. The audio version is well read by a stuffy Englishman also and, naturally, the subject matter suits the voice. PS: As an Englishman myself I feel wholly justified in critizing, once again, a nation that takes all of its history way too seriously.