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It goes without saying that I love to invest in books with lovely prose, and Pip Williams more than delivers in her novel The Dictionary of Lost Words. This novel's historical setting is composed with meticulous thoughtfulness and superb attention to its language.
Overall, reading this book was a lyrical experience, and when I finally pulled my gaze away from the end, I felt a sort of loss in that the reality before my eyes was not half as rich as the one I'd left behind in the pages.
A Note on the Author
Pip Williams is no stranger to writing, though The Dictionary of Lost Words has made for a smashing debut among her impressive accolades and other written works. I would feel remiss, I think, in not taking a moment to recognize the author as the most fundamental voice behind the creation of a book.
My edition also includes an interview with Pip Williams inside a Book Club Guide, which was so insightful to read after absorbing the story. One of my favorite notes from the interview, which I'll expand on further in this post's Critical Analysis, was on her consideration of women's involvement in developing the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Williams says:
"I knew nothing about the creation of the OED before reading The Professor and the Madman. That book made me curious about whether words might mean different things to men and women; it made me wonder if it mattered that the English language was being defined by men, from books written mostly by men."
Williams also denotes shortly thereafter that she was driven to the library, and that the Internet can only take you so far. As someone who spent many years volunteering my local library, this note from Williams earns her brownie points in my book.