What They Didn't Say: A Book of Misquotations

By Elizabeth Knowles

Book Overview

An entertaining and thought-provoking book for language buffs and anyone interested in quotations, What They Didn't Say sifts through more than one hundred and fifty misquotations, incorrect attributions, and apocryphal remarks to reveal the origins of the quotes. Organized in an accessible A-Z format, quotes range from "Actors are cattle" (Alfred Hitchcock) to "You dirty rat " (James Cagney) and span from the classical world right up to the present day.

Bringing together a fascinating range of wrongly remembered sayings, What They Didn't Say aims to set the record straight by revealing the real names and actual words behind the famous missayings.

Sample entry:
A good day to bury bad news.
In the hours following news of the terrorist action in America on 11 September 2001 ("nine-eleven"), the British government adviser Jo Moore sent out an email reading, "It is now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury." This was leaked and widely reported; public shock and distaste were heightened by its becoming fixed in the general consciousness in the form, "a good day to bury bad news."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199203598
• ISBN13: 9780199203598
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Fills it tiny niche well

Lots of fun stuff about famous misquotations. Perfect bathroom reading for liberal arts majors and others with similar aspirations. AND it can help you win bar bets with that boss of yours who is just well-read enough to remember the misquotations. I just wish it were longer. Not quite enough meat for the price. Fresh fields and pastures new (NOT!) Gild the lily (NOT!)