Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (Wordsworth Collection)

by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

Book Overview

The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable explains the origins of the familiar and the unfamiliar in everyday speech and literature, including the colloquial and the proverbial, and embracing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1853263001
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Wordsworth Edition
• Length: 1200 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 2.3" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Earlier editions of Brewer were better

I remember being unable to put down an earlier edition of "Brewer" (unfortunately, I can't say which one, since I don't have a copy). What it had that the current edition has much less of was an exhaustive collection of allusions to classical literature and mythology. This made it indispensable if you were reading 19th Century literature (or earlier), where allusions to these texts were not only more common, but went unexplained because contemporaneous readers didn't need the explanation. The current edition has cut much of this - admittedly obscure - material, presumably to make room for items of more contemporary appeal. "Brewer" was at least as much fun to "dip into" with nothing in particular to track down as it was for reference use. I suppose "sic transit gloria mundi" in this context is blasphemous, but that's how it feels...