THE DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS
by Pip Williams
Novels set in another time and place that are so realistically drawn as to cause me to have a visceral response are rare and wonderful. For me, they make the storyline feel like an extension of the setting. Or is it the other way around? Does the story feel compelling because the author portrays the setting with such authenticity? Whatever the explanation, Pip Williams has mastered the balance of both factors in The Dictionary of Lost Words.
Set in Oxford, England from 1886 to 1929, Dictionary tells the story of Esme who is left motherless at an early age and brought up at her father’s knee in the Scriptorium, where he and a small group of men are painstakingly assembling the original edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Esme takes on roles at the Scriptorium throughout her childhood and adolescence. As a result, she grows up questioning the status quo, challenging societal stereotypes and standing up for herself. As she gets older and must interact more with the world outside of her family and the Scriptorium, these interactions become more challenging. From her encounters with public education to her relationships with men and her interest in the suffrage movement, Esme must find ways to live within a society that often doesn’t want to hear what women have to say. Amidst her efforts to ground herself in this society and yet still address its shortcomings, she decides she wants to write a very different dictionary from the OED. This dictionary would document women’s words, worker’s words and spoken words—those words deemed unimportant or unacceptable for the OED by the panel of white men assembling it.
Beautifully written and filled with characters you will come to love, The Dictionary of Lost Words is original, captivating and an all-around great read. If you feel like leaving the winter of 2025 behind and transporting yourself to early 20th century Oxford, give yourself the gift of The Dictionary of Lost Words. (Liz)
