Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

Perfect book for anyone with double interests in psychology and the English language. Very well-written and clever. While packed with well-researched facts and history, reads smoothly and the story unfolds at the perfect pace. If you’re into niche nonfiction, or are a big word nerd, you’ll love it.

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julied's review against another edition

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informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

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thisiscourt's review

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informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

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beulah_devaney's review

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dark informative sad slow-paced

4.0

Just as entertaining and tragic as it sounds. <i>The Professor</i> is about one of publishing's most enduring urban myths: the time the editor of the Oxford Dictionary discovered his chief contributor was resident in a London psychiatric hospital. It's incredibly entertaining and the sections on the history of dictionaries as a form of cultural colonialism is especially interesting.

Content warnings: as you've probably guessed from the title, Winchester talks about everyone who isn't a white wealthy man as if they were some unique, vaguely repulsive alien species. Stand by for racism, sexism, abelism, and in depth discussion of body horror and self-harm.

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