Technically, this post should be titled Non-Fiction Friday, but as I never real nonfiction (as a general rule), I kept the title because this is my Book Review template. This was a book that the Library Book Club had chosen, and I fully expected to skip this one, but decided to give a chance and see how I felt about a non-fiction book after having not read one for some time. Also, it was narrative non-fiction which is always more appealing to me.
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
(Harper, 1998)
Though there was an army of people responsible for the daunting task of creating the Oxford English Dictionary in Victorian times, this is the story of two of the most important, and intriguing, figures. The tale begins with a murder committed by an American army doctor in the slums of London and details his unlikely journey to becoming one of the most valuable volunteers to contribute to this monumental undertaking...from his rooms of a hospital for the criminally insane.
This extremely well-written and well-researched story was extremely compelling. Not only does it delve into the fascinating lives of Dr. Minor and Professor James Murry and their unlikely friendship, it also tells the story of trying to quantify and contain an unwieldy language into an authoritative document.
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