The Devil's Dictionary: Colour Illustrated, Formatted For E-Readers (Unabridged Version), by Ambrose Bierce
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The Devil's Dictionary: Colour Illustrated, Formatted For E-Readers (Unabridged Version), by Ambrose Bierce
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Formatted for E-Readers, Unabridged & Original version. You will find it much more comfortable to read on your device/app. Easy on your eyes. Includes: 15 Colored Illustrations and Biography The Devil's Dictionary is a satirical dictionary written by American journalist and author Ambrose Bierce. Originally published in 1906 as The Cynic's Word Book, it features Bierce's witty and often ironic spin on many common English words. Retitled in 1911, it has been followed by numerous "unabridged" versions compiled after Bierce's death, which include definitions absent from earlier editions.The Devil's Dictionary began during Bierce's time as a columnist for the San Francisco News Letter, a small weekly financial magazine founded by Frederick Marriott in the late 1850s. Although it was a serious magazine aimed at businessmen, it contained a page of informal satirical content titled "The Town Crier". Hired as the "Crier" 's editor in December 1868, Bierce wrote satire with such irreverence and lack of inhibition he was nicknamed "the laughing devil of San Francisco". Bierce resigned from "The Town Crier" and spent three years in London. Returning to San Francisco in 1875, he made two submissions to the News Letter in hopes of regaining his old position. Both were written under aliases, one entitled "The Demon's Dictionary" containing Bierce's definitions for 48 words. Later forgotten in his compiling of The Devil's Dictionary, they were added almost a century later to an Enlarged Devil's Dictionary published in 1967. Though Bierce's preface to The Devil's Dictionary dates the earliest work to 1881, its origins can be traced to August 1869. Short of material and recently possessed of a Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, he suggested writing a "comic dictionary" for the "Town Crier". Quoting from Webster's entry for "Vicegerents", "Kings are sometimes called God's vicegerents," he added the italicised rejoinder, "It is to be wished they would always deserve the appellation," then suggested Webster might have used his talent to comic effect. Comic definitions were not a regular feature of Bierce's next column ("Prattle", in the magazine The Argonaut, of which he became an editor in March 1877). Nevertheless, he included comic definitions in his columns dated November 17, 1877, and September 14, 1878. It was in early 1881 that Bierce first used the title, The Devil's Dictionary, while editor-in-chief of another weekly San Francisco magazine, The Wasp. The "dictionary" proved popular, and during his time in this post (1881–86) he included 88 installments, each consisting of 15–20 new definitions. In 1887 Bierce became an editor of The San Francisco Examiner, and introduced "The Cynic's Dictionary". This was to be the last of his "dictionary" columns until 1904, and continued irregularly until July 1906. A number of the definitions are accompanied by satiric verses, many of which are signed with comic pseudonyms such as "Salder Bupp", "Orm Pludge", and "Father Gassalasca Jape, S.J.".
The Devil's Dictionary: Colour Illustrated, Formatted For E-Readers (Unabridged Version), by Ambrose Bierce - Amazon Sales Rank: #1469171 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-09-22
- Released on: 2015-09-22
- Format: Kindle eBook
The Devil's Dictionary: Colour Illustrated, Formatted For E-Readers (Unabridged Version), by Ambrose Bierce Review Satiric lexicon by Ambrose Bierce, first compiled as The Cynic's Word Book in 1906 and reissued under the author's preferred title five years later. The barbed definitions that Bierce began publishing in the Wasp, a weekly journal he edited in San Francisco from 1881 to 1886, brought this 19th-century stock form to a new level of artistry. Employing a terse, aphoristic style, Bierce lampooned social, professional, and religious convention, as in his definitions for bore--"A person who talks when you wish him to listen"; architect--"One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money"; and saint--"A dead sinner revised and edited." Many of the entries include "authenticating" citations from spurious scholarly sources. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Review Ambrose Bierce was an iconoclastic literary genius and this compilation of definitions (written for a satirical magazine during the 1880s) is a true American classic. Some may find Bierce sexist, nationalist and racist, but most readers will enjoy his malevolent scepticism and underlying rage against hypocrisy. Ralph Steadman's incisive illustrations perfectly complement the text. A typical example: Gold n. A yellow metal greatly prized for its convenience in the various kinds of robbery known as trade. The word was formerly spelled 'God' - the 'l' was inserted to distinguish it from the name of another inferior deity. Only two years after the book was published in 1911, Bierce disappeared after setting off for Mexico to join Pancho Villa's rebels against the corrupt dictatorial regime of Porfirio Diaz. His legacy is memorable.
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73 of 77 people found the following review helpful. it ain't Webster's By Orrin C. Judd 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
61 of 64 people found the following review helpful. Avoid This Incomplete Edition By Amazon Customer The Bloomsbury edition illustrated by Ralph Steadman is ABRIDGED. Do not purchase unless you are buying it for the drawings.
42 of 45 people found the following review helpful. an ABRIDGED version By Texas Lawyer I'd skip this and purchase the UNABRIDGED version. Some of the definitions left out in this version are among Bierce's best. Also, the complete work is not so long: no reason to abridge something that in full length is only 100 or so pages long.
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The Devil's Dictionary: Colour Illustrated, Formatted For E-Readers (Unabridged Version), by Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary: Colour Illustrated, Formatted For E-Readers (Unabridged Version), by Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary: Colour Illustrated, Formatted For E-Readers (Unabridged Version), by Ambrose Bierce
