It took me a while to write this entry cause I found hard to explain everything that has been going on my mind after reading this marvelous work, but I hope this small review will get the general idea across.

I consider this book to be worth reading for those who love history, language and fiction. These three categories are spectacularly interwined throughout this well-researched and detailed novel with delightful characters, which describes the herculean effort to edith the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. We can see the world through the eyes of Esme, a lexicographer-to-be, who grew up among words and scholars. The author successfully portrays a chainging society and lets us delve into the important events such as the World War I and the women suffragist movement taking place in the early 1900s. Not only this but the author facilitates this emotional connection to the main character: we accompany Esme throughout all difficulties she has to overcome, we get convinced by her arguments, we feel what she feels, dwell as well, we deeply share Esme's feelings.

This book also offers a woman's points of view of the context she was living in. When it comes to words, to the language, and thus the creation of the dictionary, she points out that all words defined and added to the dictionary are according to men's opinions and beliefs, based mainly on men's written works (which is understandable due to the historical facts such as women being outnumbered in universities, printing houses and research positions) and many colloquial words were left out of the dictionary due to the lack of printed evidence of its usage. It also highlights the fact that one word can be understood differently depending on the user, their context, a woman may use some words differently than men and vice versa. We also need to consider the user's status in society, age and location cause it defines the "shades" of meaning.

Esme's eager to compile alll words that are left out of the first edition but also decided to provide an opportunity to those unwritten words and widely used to be visible and kept for the upcoming times. Every new word she came across during a conversation or by eavesdropping was annotated, defined and exemplified. Her curiosity led her to do linguistic field work.

Something I loved about this is that every new word that has been introduced was deeply related to Esme's growth stages and have a great impact not only on her but also on the reader. I have to be honest, this book left me thinking many times: lost in my thoughts, and struggling to keep emotions at bay.

In my previous entry about this book I said I might not like what was coming in the second part of this book, but now I happily take my words back.