Author: Pip Williams
Publisher: Affirm Press
Year of Release: 2020
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction
Release Date: 31st March 2020
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Synopsis
In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.
Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.
Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.
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’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.
Review
How I love this book, love a definition- great interest and pleasure in something.
Unlike most children Esme Nicoll didn’t grow up amongst other children in the school playground, she doesn’t long to play dress up with her dolls, Esme is perfectly content beneath the sorting table whilst her father and other talented lexicographers collect words for the very first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
One morning a slip with the word ‘bondmaid’ finds its way under the sorting table this does not go unnoticed by Esme who has an unstoppable curiosity when it comes to words. Esme feels a strong connection this particular word keeps the word tucked away in her pockets, over time more words come into Esme’s world.
As Esme grows her love of words also grows, still dedicated to the progress of the dictionary Esme gains more responsibility allowing her more access to the outside word on her travels, she comes to understand that some words are more important than others, especially words and meanings that relate to women and their experiences often go unnoticed and therefore unrecorded, heading into womanhood Esme’s life takes a few unexpected twists and turns she did not see coming which ultimately lead her to create The Dictionary of Lost Words.
The Dictionary of Lost words is a book for anyone who is curious about words and this period in history. The writing is exquisite and the story original, I knew from the last sentence of the synopsis this book and I would be the dearest of friends. I think anyone who has a connection like that to a story should purchase it immediately.
The book your seeing everywhere, the book everyone is now talking about is worth the hype, I would have read this book in one sitting if I could’ve. You know that book you want to gift to everyone so that they have it on their shelves? This is that book.
Thanks to Williams writing I was able to see the world through Esme’s six year old eyes I felt this allowed me to see and share in Esme’s belief in the Scriptorium being a magical place, as she grew though the book so did we the readers, we weren’t told to love and see the world we grew to love it too. The language was perfectly suited to 1900’S I’ve often wanted to go back in time just to hear their use of words.
I’m the first person to admit if I feel like a chapter is to long, The Dictionary of Lost Words is the first book in a very long time where I felt like the chapters ran out before I could stop it.
The characters are perfectly suited to the book and believable in the roles they play within the pages, the relationship between Esme and her pa Harry was a standout element in the book for me. Harry never once gave this reader the impression that he or his daughter were missing out on something because he was always at the scriptorium rather it seemed to me that he was enriching his daughters life by being there showing her how important words can be and just how much they shape the world around us no matter our age.
I care so much about most of these characters and what happened to them tears were shed at different points in the book. The Author has done an excellent job in writing these characters this reader feels somewhat selfish in being able to sit back and just enjoy the feeling of knowing very early on in the story the who’s who and understanding what role they play within the pages. I think this is an expectation for all readers across all genres however this is not a garmented experience for this reader who in the past has struggled to comprehend one characters relationship towards another in the book or even the role they played.
As I neared the end of the story I was delighted to see that the plot was able to hold onto the original plot for the duration of the book, I think because of this I was fully immersed into this book making it onto my favourites list for which there is only four other titles. I will say for me this book could’ve made a few touch ups the ending needed some work I was not entirely convinced of this ending. When it comes to the characters I think some of them needed more of an explanation as to what became of them.
I think this book will find a forever home with anyone who lives for a character driven story that also holds an original story I’m reminded of other books that hold original plotlines such as Where the Crawdad’s Sing, Delia Owens, and The Binding Bridget Collins lovers of Historical Fiction shall flock to this book.