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Title: The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, Roy Morris Jr. ISBN: 0-19-512627-0 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.65 (34 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic of 19th century American literature
Comment: Ambrose Bierce was a man of many distinctions - writer, journalist, humorist, and Civil War veteran. We all remember reading his classic story "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" in eighth grade English class. Bierce is best known for his ghoulish horror tales, which were on a par with Edgar Allan Poe, but his greatest work was The Devil's Dictionary. A scathing parody of Webster's dictionary, Bierce's volume was a showcase for his brilliant, caustic wit. This is Bierce at his best, mixing comedy with social commentary, unleashing his anarchistic convictions to the hilt! Bierce blasts away at God and country and all that is respected and proper. He defines patriot as "the dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors", a Conservative as "a statesman who is enamored of existing evils" and a clergyman as "a man who undertakes the management of our spiritual affairs as a method of bettering his temporal ones" and so on. Nothing is sacred and no one is safe in this classic work of 19th century American literature which continues to attract just as much controversy and outrage today as it did when it was first published. A must read for all students of literature, dissenters, and fans of caustic humor!
Rating: 5
Summary: it ain't Webster's
Comment: Beginning in 1881 and continuing to 1906, Ambrose Bierce created a series of sardonic word definitions of his own. Many of these were collected and published as The Cynic's Word Book, which he later protested was "a name which the author had not the power to reject or happiness to approve." So in 1911, he pulled together a collection that was more to his own liking and called it The Devil's Dictionary. The entries are a tad uneven in quality, but most are amusing and some are great. Each reader will have his own favorites, some of mine are as follows : ACQUAINTANCE, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous. ALLIANCE, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third. BIGOT, n. One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain. BORE, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen. CONSULT, v.i. To seek another's disapproval of a course already decided on. CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his vision. DICTIONARY, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work. DISCRIMINATE, v.i. To note the particulars in which one person or thing is, if possible, more objectionable than another. EDUCATION, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. FUTURE, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured. HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.... A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling... He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line. POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. And, my choice for the very best among them : CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others. By all means, read it and pick out your own; you're sure to find a few that tickle your fancy. GRADE : A
Rating: 2
Summary: Avoid This Incomplete Edition
Comment: The Bloomsbury edition illustrated by Ralph Steadman is ABRIDGED. Do not purchase unless you are buying it for the drawings.
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Title: The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce by Ambrose Bierce, Ernest Jerome Hopkins ISBN: 0803260717 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1985 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, David E. Schultz, S. T. Joshi ISBN: 0820324019 Publisher: University of Georgia Press Pub. Date: 03 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce ISBN: 0486280381 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 August, 1994 List Price(USD): $9.99 |
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Title: Sardonic Humor of Ambrose Bierce by A. Bierce ISBN: 0486207684 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 June, 1963 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: little.com by Ralph Steadman ISBN: 0862649943 Publisher: Andersen Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.99 |
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