"The Liar's Dictionary" by Eley Williams: A Captivating Novel of Deception and Misleading Language

BookWorm: If you are a person who loves words - strange words, funny words, words with a history - then 'The Liar's Dictionary' is a must read. The novel alternates between the 19th century and the 21st. Winceworth is a Victorian lexicographer, responsible for the 'S' section of an encyclopaedic dictionary despite having a lisp. Mocked by his colleagues and generally lonely, he starts to add made-up words of his own to the book. In the 21st century, Mallory is a young woman tasked with identifying and removing these fake words (called, wonderfully, 'mountweazels') as part of digitising the dictionary - and also responsible for fielding increasingly sinister phone calls from someone threatening the business.

As you'd expect for a book about words, it is wordy - both in the way it is written, and in the way it picks out certain words for particular attention. At times I found it slightly hard work to read and the pace a bit slow. But I grew to really like the character of Winceworth, and Mallory is also sympathetic. I liked the scenes where Winceworth and his awful colleagues have 'conversations' where they ignore everything he says, and his strategy for surviving at parties is one I...

United Kingdom on Nov 30, 2023

Amazonian Customer: The Liar's Dictionary is Swansby's New Encyclopedic Dictionary. First printed in 1930, it is "not the first nor the best and certainly not the most famous dictionary of the English language".

Half the story takes place in 1899 and features Peter Winceworth, a bored lexicographer who invents definitions and hides them amongst the real words. And in the present day we have Mallory, an intern whose fate it is to try and identify these false entries before the dictionary is digitised.

At first, I struggled with the tone of this book. It's so very self-congratulatory, so pleased with itself and its clever use of language, so conceited, smug, superior, vainglorious. But the story is completely captivating and soon its arch style and smart attitude had completely won me over. What bibliophile could fail to love a novel about such a pointless and quirky book of words and the people who tend to it?

United Kingdom on Jun 22, 2022

DR Naturegirl: but I warmed to it part way through. Clever and we’ll written at first I found no connections, no characters I could love - or hate. Then the characters and their stories began to emerge, Mallory, Pip, David , Wiceworth, Frasham, Sophia. The oat and the present, the place, the words eventually came together with humour and interest. I was bldg I read it, in the end.

United Kingdom on Feb 23, 2022

Teresa Freeman: For lovers of words and their sources. For connoisseurs of research. For the sweet, sweet realization of love.
I want those spare words and might just start my own illustrated dictionary.

United States on Jan 27, 2022

Dave the Rave: A lively account of some of the dilemmas [noun, plural] facing those who would be self-appointed bouncers for the English language. How many times must a word be used [in print] before it is no longer a neologism and becomes a fact [noun, state of being]. Much of it reads like Shrunk & White with egregious errors such as run on sentences masquerading as warning against run on sentences made more difficult by the disjointed structure of the unreliable narrative [;-{>)]. A good read for those who can think of three different words to describe a flower with three brackens.

Canada on Aug 16, 2021

RnRDoggos: I'm not sure what led to Amazon recommending that I read this book, but I'm glad it did. I love words and wordplay, so the setting for this novel was very appealing. Interesting juxtaposition of the 2 main characters' lives working at the same encyclopedic dictionary. I found myself highlighting new words and looking them up (easy to do on Kindle), so much so that I made myself to stop to just enjoy the journey, having promised myself that I would read it a second time to indulge my curiosity about particular words/etymologies/etc. Quick read if you don't launch Wikipedia every other page.

United States on Jun 16, 2021

JAMINC: This was a really fun book for anyone who enjoys words for what they are. It was really fun to see the words (and sometimes their origin) and imagine them in this dictionary-writing workplace. The characters were fun and creative. The whole concept was fun. Read and Enjoy!

United States on Jun 02, 2021

Nicole: The word play was annoying and unnecessary and contrived. I’m not sure what the heroine’s lesbian Relationship had to do with anything either. All that was necessary to mention was that she was in love with a woman. I didn’t care about the heroine and her relationship… It was just not important to the story…I cared about her relationship with the publisher. I honestly did not find the heroine to be interesting and I developed little empathy for her. She was more narrator rather than an actual character. I would’ve liked to have seen a better exploration of the publisher’s past and motivation. The few witty, eloquent and poignant aspects were just drowned out by endless ruminations and word porn that made no sense and made the book dull instead of making it sparkle. The book was rushed at the end. The final aspects of the book could’ve been better explored , especially the intriguing ending (or beginning if you want to see it that way !) I thought this could have been a wonderful mystery boo with a twist, but the story got lost in the word play ... And wordplay is not a story. Instead, the first 2/3 were filled with unnecessary diatribe and thesaurus-thumping...

United States on Mar 03, 2021

MissyFlissy: There must be a word for the regret one feels when a really good book ends. It may even be within these pages, which are crammed with wondrous new and old terms, some invented and some merely obscure—but all delightfully arranged into a tale of two characters wending their way to a better understanding of life, love, and lexicography. Plus there are cats!

United States on Feb 12, 2021

PadUser: I really enjoyed this book.

At the heart of it are two mildly nervous characters separated by a century, both engaged in the seemingly tedious drudgery of editing a dictionary. And the modern day lexicographer has to discover the lies perpetuated by her clever, but bored Edwardian counterpart. Against that backcloth the author creates a wonderful world of intrigue and invention that she herself engages in in a crafty way.

As you would expect, there is considerable word play. We are invited to consider: words that look as if they don’t exist, but do; words that are in the dictionary, but are completely made-up to mislead; and in a much more crafty way, new words that the author nonchalantly slips into her text, perhaps in the hope of gaining immortality by having those same words cited in future editions of the Oxford English Dictionary.

However, the book contains so much more than entertaining linguistic inventiveness. As a reader I sit with the characters in their ennui and want to encourage them in their tentative attempts to find fulfilment in love. And I really admired the author’s ability to acutely observe and describe the comedy and hypocrisy in...

United Kingdom on Aug 29, 2020