Overview

Unscrambling the language of a defining passion, this is a fabulously unconventional excursion into a consuming obsession with the marvels of language. ""The whole of ""The Catcher in the Rye"" is in the ""Oxford English Dictionary"", waiting to be unscrambled, and so are all the novels of our past, present, and immediate future."" A dictionary, despite its heroic effort to pin down language, is destined for failure the moment a single word is printed: for language, with its eternal mutations, is forever uncontainable. In ""Dictionary Days"", award-winning essayist Ilan Stavans explores the very human need to seize upon the meaning of things and the continuing attempt to catalogue existence with meaningful lexical signals called ""words"". Owner of hundreds of dictionaries, Stavans follows a fascinating, zigzagging history of lexicography across many languages, including English; French; Spanish; German; Arabic; Hebrew; Latin; and Cyrillic. Throughout his journey, Stavans spots strange meaning inconsistencies, uncovers unusual origins and shares extraordinary and often hilarious anecdotes. With a dazzling knowledge of dictionaries through the ages, matched with a lively wit, Stavans reaches far beyond the margins of the page and pays a worthy tribute to a discipline that is at once inspiring and maddening. ""For dictionaries are oracles: nothing is outside them - except the impossible.""

Full Product Details

9781555974190

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Reviews

Ilan Stavans may very well succeed in becoming the Octavio Paz of our age. - San Francisco Chronicle

"""Ilan Stavans may very well succeed in becoming the Octavio Paz of our age."" - San Francisco Chronicle"""

Author Information

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Latino Studies at Amherst College.

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