The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English...

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary ... | Simon Winchester | Sensationalized Version of a Gripping History

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The Professor and ...

	The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary ... Simon Winchester Harper Perennial, 2005 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 413 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Excellent read. You'll think differently about dictionaries when you're finshed!

This was a book club selection I was reluctant to read because it sounded dull. I was happily surprised to discover it was fun to read, very informative and as I own a copy of the OED, even more interesting. Highly recommend for anyone that loves words.

Sensationalized Version of a Gripping History

The Professor and the Madman is the yellow journalism version of the history of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), Sir James Murray, Dr. William Chester Minor, the treatment of the criminally insane during the Victorian period. I was particularly offended by the overly graphic details of Dr. Minor's self-mutilation (if you don't have a strong stomach, skip that section) and playing up of the fictionalized (and often repeated as fact) version of how Sir James and Dr. Minor first met. If the story weren't so interesting, I would encourage you to avoid the book.

Writing the first edition of the OED took 70 years and employed an unusual organizational method that has since become popular for monumental knowledge tasks -- relying on volunteers to do the bulk of the work of finding quotations that use each word in different ways over time. As someone who has always admired the OED, I enjoyed learning more about the process involved in its development. Unfortunately, that material is scattered throughout the book rather than concentrated where you can find it for a brief read through. The examples are good, however, if the material is needlessly diluted.

Thinking about that monumental effort will give you just the right foundation for appreciating how mental illness can affect parts of one's faculties while leaving others undisturbed, as the paranoid Dr. Minor employed his extensive free time in the Broadmoor Asylum for Criminally Insane and personal wealth to become of the most organized and helpful contributors to the OED.

Dr. Minor's story is the actual focus of the book. Unless you are quite interested in ironies, mental illness, and how the Victorians treated the criminally insane, you will probably find this book has more of Dr. Minor than you really care to know. It's a tragic story, but not one that I would have sought to read if the OED development process material hadn't been in the book. As background for that comment, you should know that I have a strong interest in criminal insanity and wrote my law school thesis on the subject. The book tells its story to make you feel the pain of being Dr. Minor quite well, but The Madman and the Professor won't advance your knowledge of mental illness or legal concepts of responsibility very much.

I was attracted to this book in part due to my work in leading the 400 Year Project, seeking ways to make improvements in everyone's lives at 20 times the normal rate between 2015 and 2035. I came away impressed that just a few people can make a remarkable contribution to an all-but-impossible project. I will redouble my efforts to locate such people for the 400 Year Project.

Tackle the impossible to find out what you can really do!

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Surprisingly absorbing

Locked inside the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary is an astonishing, bizarre story poignantly told in The Professor and the Madman. Well written, this disturbing story flows easily, holding the reader's interest to the end, even through the definitions!

After reading this book I have also gained a new appreciation for the beloved dictionary.

Slow

I did like this book and would have given it 3.5 stars is I could. The history was interesting and easy to get through, even for a casual reader of histories such as myself. However, for some reason I felt like I was dragging myself through parts. I am unable to put my finger on it, but some parts were just really slow for me. I would recomend that you read this book if for no reason than it is full of interesting facts that may come in handy at a cocktail party. In all seriousness, I did like it but read it on vacation so you can cruise through the slow parts.

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Interesting, but cannot match its own hype

I think that I could've really enjoyed this book on its own merits had the author not continued to insist throughout that the story was horrifying, amazing, shocking, thrilling, electrifying, and tragic by turns. Rarely can these "sensationalist histories" live up to their own hype. I found the book a fascinating look into the development of the OED with the bonus of the intriguing back story of one its most unusual volunteer contributors. Isn't that good enough? Why must everything be oversold? Note to the publisher: Next time undersell, over-deliver.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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