"The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchester. Teeny Review

 


Written in 1998 by prolific author, Simon Winchester, it has been turned into a movie starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn. The storyline is just what the subtitle says. But there's much more. Even the murdered laborer, George Merrett gets some extra print in the author's postscript. It's a delightful work, giving background to the genealogy of dictionaries and how the Oxford English Dictionary, 70 years in the making, came about. But the plain details are colored in by the story of "The Professor," James Murray, and "The Madman," Dr. William Chester Minor. There are side trails the author trots down, here and there, that seem a bit tedious at times, but overall, it was an attention-grabbing work.

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