The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (Hardcover)
Product Details
- Hardcover: 1168 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 6 edition (October 22, 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0198607202
- ISBN-13: 978-0198607205
- Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.2 x 2.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Samuel Johnson once observed that “Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.” And since every book of quotations certainly contributes to the enlargement of the reference collection, why add another?This is no ordinary book of quotations. As one would expect from the publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary, this work is thoroughly cross-referenced, packed with special features, and, most importantly for a collection of quotations, provides citations and context for each entry. Among the special features set off in boxes throughout the text are lists of epitaphs, catchphrases, borrowed titles, misquotations, opening lines, last words, and film lines and titles. The keyword index is exhaustive.
Since its first edition, in 1941, the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has offered a wide array of quotations, succeeding in preserving the wisdom of the ages as well as presenting the latest catchphrases and sound bites. The fifth edition (1999) restored sections devoted to proverbs and nursery rhymes that had been cut from an earlier edition; these sections remain. That edition had paid particular attention to the sacred texts of several world religions, and those passages are also enshrined in this new edition. A comparison of this edition with its predecessor found that although George Abbott, Beryl Bainbridge, Lord Bancroft, Antonio Callado, Salvador Dali, Newton Gingrich, Ice Cube, Barry Scheck, Emma Thompson, and Raquel Welch have been dropped, Elizabeth David, Amelia Earhart, Carly Fiorina, Penelope Fitzgerald, Indira Gandhi, Bill Gates, Frank Gehry, Rudolph Giuliani, David Hare, Eddie Izzard, Frida Kahlo, Donna Karan, Estee Lauder, Alison Lurie, Thurgood Marshall, Georgia O’Keefe, Vladimir Putin, J. K. Rowling, Ernest Shackleton, Ariel Sharon, and Sam Walton have been added.
Large collections will want to add this edition to the previous ones on their shelves; smaller collections should consider it as a way to add depth to their quotation holdings. Carolyn Mulac
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
`Review from previous edition Invaluable.’ Brian MacArthur in The Times 3 December 1999
`Still the best.’ John Walsh in The Independent 20 June 2002
`I could re-read it over and over again and never grow bored, for its pages contain all the insight of a library.’ Minette Walters in Daily Mail 11 January 2002
Who said what, when and for what reason? If it’s been said, written, shouted, exclaimed or moaned in a breathy sigh, you’ll find it recorded here. Three-thousand years worth of quotes from everyone who has ever been anyone: generals, saints, writers, actors, politicians, judges, criminals, heroes, the infamous, the dying, the triumphant, the fictional and the mythical. In this magnficent volume you can search either by an individual name and see all listings for that person, or by subject, and see all recorded passages about whatever topic you wish to investigate. Great for public speakers, students, writers, or lovers of wit, excoriation, or profundity, and absolutely deserving of the word “Encyclopedia” in its title.