The Devil's Dictionary
79 Installments—Entirely free
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from 7 Ratings and 1 Review
ISBN:1598186558
Description
In the 1860s, Ambrose Bierce, a San Francisco humorist with a sharp wit for satire, purchased a copy of Webster’s Dictionary. Not content to let his agile mind sit idle even while consulting this reference book, Bierce began creating his own irreverent entries for various words. This project would eventually become his 1911 work, The Devil’s Dictionary. Readers can delight in Bierce’s devilish definitions for words from the everyday to the extraordinary. Bierce’s zany humor infuses each entry, from definitions like “Bore: a person who talks when you wish him to listen,” or “Corporation: an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.” Bierce’s sharp wit will keep you laughing all the way through the alphabet.
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_The Devil's Dictionary_ was begun in a weekly paper in 1881, and was continued in a desultory way at long intervals until 1906. In that year a large part of it was published in covers with the title _The Cynic's Word Book_, a name which the author had not the power to reject or happiness to ...
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5/5
Reviewed by spectrekitty on Feb 14, 2012
Still Funny Today, by a Fascinating Man
I'd always heard of "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, and wanted to read it, partly because of the title. It's full of irreverent definitions that still ring true today!
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Ratings for 'The Devil's Dictionary' by Bierce, Ambrose
| BabsG | | 2008-12-07 | |
| Coveredinrust | | 2013-01-03 | |
| Faustess |  | 2011-08-02 | |
| jagllgs | | 2011-07-25 | |
| luvpumpkns |  | 2012-01-14 | |
| mstrust | | 2010-04-15 | |
| spectrekitty | | Read review | 2012-02-14 |
The Devil's Dictionary
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