Emily M. (nnaylime) - reviewed on 11/18/2009 + 14 more book reviews

There once was a surgeon named Minor
Who became a prodigious definer
Though he had a large brain
He was also insane
Could the irony be any finer?

* * * * *

I really enjoyed this book it was, as I noted in my "in progress" review, quite the interdisciplinary social history.

Though the subject seems extremely dry (the development of the Oxford English Dictionary), when you think about it--the task of cataloging and defining EVERY SINGLE WORD in the English language--it becomes supremely mind-boggling.

In addition to the history of the dictionary, W.C. Minor--a U.S. citizen who had been confined in an insane asylum for murder--played a central and integral role.

And their intertwined stories (along with that of Dr. Murray the dictionary's editor) hung together in a fascinating way. My only fault with the book was at the end, where the author rather than dispassionately recounting the stories, begins to wax philosophical on the nature of insanity and the treatment of the insane.

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