The Dictionary of Lost Words

Some words are more than letters on a page, don't you think?' she said, tying the sash around my belly as best she could. ‘They have shape and texture. They are like bullets, full of energy, and when you give one breath you can feel its sharp edge against your lip. It can be quite cathartic in the right context.'

I loved that this book started with two questions: “Do words mean different things to men and women? And if they do, is it possible that we have lost something on the process of defining them?” .

This book follows fictional and real characters throughout most of the timeline of the first edition of the Oxford dictionary (1857-1928). Due to the large timeline, the book also includes some information regarding the women's suffrage movement and the WWI.

I loved every bit of the story related to words. The criteria used to decide if they would belong to the dictionary or not, how the definitions were made and how this process ended not only being gender biased but social economic biased as well. I especially enjoyed how Esme felt attracted to words and how she ended up collecting words and meanings that would give voice to the underrepresented.

“It came back to me then, and I realised that the words most often used to define us were words that described our function in relation to others”

Unfortunately, I've felt that the book dragged for a bit. The long timeline of the dictionary forced the author to find ways to involve Esme in the suffrage movement and on the WWI. I've felt that some episodes were inconsistent with Esme personality and did not add much value to the story. Additionally, some events that I wanted to know more about were left incomplete (e.g the Esperanto word therapy).

Ultimately, I ended up feeling the story was all over the place, I would have preferred to know more about Esme actions/ roles described in the epilogue, which felt more aligned with her interests for words and her need to give voice to everyone.

Overall, it was a nice reading and I recommend it for historical fiction fans.

stars: 3.5 rounding up to 4