The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary | Ambrose Bierce

✍ Scribed by David E. Schultz, S. T. Joshi

• Publisher: University Of Georgia Press
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 437
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

If we could only put aside our civil pose and say what we really thought, the world would be a lot like the one alluded to in The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary. There, a bore is "a person who talks when you wish him to listen," and happiness is "an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another." This is the most comprehensive, authoritative edition ever of Ambrose Bierce's satiric masterpiece. It renders obsolete all other versions that have appeared in the book's ninety-year history. A virtual onslaught of acerbic, confrontational wordplay, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary offers some 1,600 wickedly clever definitions to the vocabulary of everyday life. Little is sacred and few are safe, for Bierce targets just about any pursuit, from matrimony to immortality, that allows our willful failings and excesses to shine forth. This new edition is based on David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi's exhaustive investigation into the book's writing and publishing history. All of Bierce's known satiric definitions are here, including previously uncollected, unpublished, and alternative entries. Definitions dropped from previous editions have been restored while nearly two hundred wrongly attributed to Bierce have been excised. For dedicated Bierce readers, an introduction and notes are also included. Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary is a classic that stands alongside the best work of satirists such as Twain, Mencken, and Thurber. This unabridged edition will be celebrated by humor fans and word lovers everywhere.

✦ Table of Contents

Table of Contents
......Page 6
Acknowledgments
......Page 8
Introduction
......Page 10
Abbreviations
......Page 32
Preface
......Page 36
A......Page 38
B......Page 54
C......Page 63
D......Page 81
E......Page 95
F......Page 109
G......Page 126
H......Page 137
I......Page 149
J......Page 171
K......Page 174
L......Page 178
M......Page 190
N......Page 202
O......Page 205
P......Page 211
Q......Page 223
R......Page 225
S......Page 238
T......Page 256
U......Page 264
V......Page 267
W......Page 268
Y......Page 275
Z......Page 277
Appendix
......Page 280
Notes
......Page 304
Appearances of Definitions
......Page 382
Bibliography
......Page 416
Index
......Page 424

✦ Subjects

English Language: Dictionaries: Humor; Language: Semantics: Humor; Vocabulary: Humor; Bierce, Ambrose: 1842 –1914? Devil’s Dictionary