A review by bookish_brain1
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

3.0

Historical fiction based on a true story about how the Oxford English Dictionary was created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I did love this book, but it's not action packed, so at times felt like it moved a bit slow. The story follows the life of Esme, a young girl raised by her father after the death of her mother. She spends most of her life in the Scriptorium, the room where a group of men decide what words/definitions make it into the dictionary. Esme begins collecting her own words, curious as to why some words, especially those used by women or people from the working/lower classes, are left out of the dictionary. Esme notices that "words used to define women describe our function in relation to others. Even the most benign words - maiden, wife, mother - told the world whether we were virgins or not. What was the male equivalent of maiden?" This book largely takes place during the suffragette movement led by Emmeline Pankhurst. My favorite quote: "Words define us, they explain us, and, on occasion, they serve to control or isolate us. But what happens when words that are spoken are not recorded? What effect does that have on the speaker of those words?" Food for thought.