Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
3 reviews
ssione5's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Torture, Murder, Violence, Suicide, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Dementia
ireadinbed's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
I can see why this book is so well lauded. The story is impossible to stop reading and it almost feels like it is intentionally cribbing the style of the dictionary. It's easy to devour and I found myself very loved by the way a person in such dire circumstances was able to contribute to scholarship in such important ways.
But I didn't like a few sections where the author dramatized or presented dramatized accounts only to later say 'except that's not how it happened' it felt cheap.
It also felt weirdly graphic in how it described Minor's pedophilic obsessions (not in the subjects own words but as the authors descriptions of young girls) and honestly I have no idea why an editor didn't ask him to change it
But I didn't like a few sections where the author dramatized or presented dramatized accounts only to later say 'except that's not how it happened' it felt cheap.
It also felt weirdly graphic in how it described Minor's pedophilic obsessions (not in the subjects own words but as the authors descriptions of young girls) and honestly I have no idea why an editor didn't ask him to change it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma and Mental illness
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Sexual content
firstbreaths's review
informative
medium-paced
2.0
This is a relatively short book (only 7 hours on audio, even before cranking it up to 2x the speed) but it took an inordinately long time for me to get through it. Mostly, I was bored (ironically there was not enough focus on the process of creating the OED for my liking), but I was also frustrated by the scholarship.
Winchester spends a lot of this book wildly speculating on the cause of Minor’s mental illness and/or trying to shock readers with the most salacious details of his delusions, which made me feel uncomfortable. None of this is helped by the lack of an actual story which I think prompted much of the wild speculation: by my account, Minor was simply an ill man who happened to occupy his time reading books on behalf of the dictionary’s editors, and while his contribution was clearly valuable, I’m not sure it’s all that special.
Oh, and it seems like a pretty simple ask to avoid mentioning that you’re ‘glad’ someone had a serious mental health condition because it allowed them to contribute to a dictionary.
A shame, because I typically love this kind of micro history.
Winchester spends a lot of this book wildly speculating on the cause of Minor’s mental illness and/or trying to shock readers with the most salacious details of his delusions, which made me feel uncomfortable. None of this is helped by the lack of an actual story which I think prompted much of the wild speculation: by my account, Minor was simply an ill man who happened to occupy his time reading books on behalf of the dictionary’s editors, and while his contribution was clearly valuable, I’m not sure it’s all that special.
Oh, and it seems like a pretty simple ask to avoid mentioning that you’re ‘glad’ someone had a serious mental health condition because it allowed them to contribute to a dictionary.
A shame, because I typically love this kind of micro history.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Slavery, Self harm, and Gun violence
More...