Based on actual events around the compilation of the first Oxford English Dictionary, The Dictionary of Lost Words is a wonderful, sweeping story that will enthral anyone who loves language.

In one of the wittiest novels of them all, Nancy Mitford casts a finely gauged net to capture perfectly the foibles and fancies of the English upper class. Set in the privileged world of the county house party and the London season, this is a comedy of English manners between the wars by one of the most individual, beguiling and creative users of the language.

Details

ISBN13: 9780241514993
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 512
Edition:
Publication Date: 02 Mar 2021
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 199(H)x129(L)x14(W)360
Weight (gm): 360

Author Biography

Born into one of the aristocracy's more eccentric families and educated at home with a clutch of siblings, Mitford used childhood experience, lightly fictionalised, in her comic novels. She also wrote biographies, translated from the French and edited a celebrated symposium on English Aristocrats.

Reviews

Utter, utter bliss—Daily Mail

A dazzling comic delight—Fiona Wilson, The Times, Saturday Review

The story's genius lies in its wicked humour, which remains relentlessly uplifting even as the Blitz begin to smash all the hopes of that pre-war arcadia—Olivia Laing, The Guardian

Too spiky and intelligent, I think, to qualify as an altogether cosy read [...] beneath the brittle surface of Mitford's wit there is something infinitely more melancholy at work - something that is apt to snag you and pull you into its dark undertow when you are least expecting it—Zoë Heller, The Telegraph

Nancy Mitford taught the wonderful truth that laughter can see you through the darkest hours of your life—Daily Mail

The Millennial faint-hearted will be appalled by Mitford's depiction of class and gender. But Mitford's triumph is that, as the Radletts live and laugh and cry, we [cry] with them—Julie Parsons, The Irish Times

In her novels Nancy mastered her life, making everyone who was different or difficult into figures of mirth, moving only among the aristocracy, and infusing the world with a spirit of lazy, delightful romance—Natasha Walter, The Independent

Utter, utter bliss—Daily Mail

A dazzling comic delight.

—Fiona Wilson, The Times, Saturday Review