NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “You wouldn’t expect a comic novel about a dictionary to be a thriller too, but this one is. In fact, [it] is also a mystery, love story (two of them) and cliffhanging melodrama.” —The New York Times Book ReviewAn award-winning novel that chronicles the charming misadventures of a lovelorn Victorian lexicographer and the young woman put on his trail a century later to root … and the young woman put on his trail a century later to root out his misdeeds while confronting questions of her own sexuality and place in the world.
Mountweazel n. the phenomenon of false entries within dictionaries and works of reference. Often used as a safeguard against copyright infringement.
In the final year of the nineteenth century, Peter Winceworth is toiling away at the letter S for Swansby’s multivolume Encyclopaedic Dictionary. But his disaffection with his colleagues compels him to assert some individual purpose and artistic freedom, and he begins inserting unauthorized, fictitious entries. In the present day, Mallory, the publisher’s young intern, starts to uncover these mountweazels in the process of digitization and through them senses their creator’s motivations, hopes, and desires. More pressingly, she’s also been contending with a threatening, anonymous caller who wants Swansby’s staff to “burn in hell.” As these two narratives coalesce, Winceworth and Mallory, separated by one hundred years, must discover how to negotiate the complexities of life’s often untrustworthy, hoax-strewn, and undefinable path. An exhilarating, laugh-out-loud debut, The Liar’s Dictionary celebrates the rigidity, fragility, absurdity, and joy of language while peering into questions of identity and finding one’s place in the world.
more
This is a clever book and, a huge bonus, I learnt a lot of new words whilst reading it. The story is split between present day where Mallory, an intern at the crumbling but wonderfully located Swansby House, is busy digitizing the Swansby Encyclopaedic Dictionary, updating the entries to go online, all the while having to deal with threatening phone calls. David Swansby, her elderly boss, believes this modernising exercise to be a noble project despite the fact the dictionary was never finished and thus has become a bit of a national joke. The other thread of the story goes back to the compilation and glory days of the dictionary; Peter Winceworth is a lexicographer who seems invisible to his colleagues in the Scrivenery; he is a peculiar chap with a lisp derived from boredom, but then he meets Sophia and his world changes.
The book is packed with detail and ‘wonderful nonsense’; could it really be that Moses had a lisp? I love the relationship between Mallory and her partner Pip and how the unfurling events make Mallory re-assess what is important in her life. So many snippets of information pop up throughout the story and the characters are well drawn, straightaway making them feel familiar; David with his online chess addiction; Winceworth’s struggles with his odious nemesis Frasham. Even the Swansby cats have an odd lineage with each one, over the decades, named Titivillus or Tits for short.
The most important word in the entire novel is mountweazel – a purposeful mistake to prevent others from copying your work. But why are there so many of them in the Swansby Dictionary? A mystery surrounds these ever more extraordinary mountweazels which Mallory and Pip uncover, along with a curious blurred photograph. I love how the stories and words intertwine and there is laugh out loud humour, my favourite being the pelican incident in the park. The whole novel has the air of a modern PG Wodehouse and it made me think about words and what I would include in my own personal dictionary. This is an intelligent, warm and unusual story and I loved the endings for both sections of the book – it was a joy to read.
Quirky story told in 2 timelines. Swansby’s New Encyclopaedic Dictionary has never actually been finished. Started years early, at the end of the 19th C, Peter Winceworth is working through the letter S. His colleague, Frasham, is engaged to Sophia, the woman Winceworth loves. After realizing that his colleagues are playing loose with language and facts, Winceworth begins to place fake words, or mountweazels, in the dictionary.
A century later, Mallory, is an intern at Swansby’s, The only employee other than David Swansby, heir to the dictionary’s founder, she received threatening phone calls each morning, and tells her girlfriend, Pip about them. When the man in charge of digitizing the dictionary finds some mountweazels, he enlists Mallory to help find them and rid them from the dictionary.
If you love words and their meanings, you will enjoy this. At times, this book made me laugh out loud, esp. with some of the mountweazels and their definitions.
I adored the idea of “The Liar’s Dictionary”! It was so crowded with an interesting cornucopia of words. I enjoyed her use of words. Ms. Williams has mastered the use of words in provoking thoughts, painting pictures of events and situations, and tickling the funnybone. I found myself giggling (see also: cackling, chortling, chuckling, guffawing, snickering, sniggering, and twittering) and downright laughing out loud. I hope to peruse it again someday in order to write down some of these delightful words (even the made-up ones). It is refreshing to find someone so adept at story-telling in such a delightful way.
I will also admit I am of the age that I am not really into the sexual parts of this novel. However, they did not adversely affect my satisfaction with the premise of the tome.
Witty, wonderful, and original. Word nerds will love.
I was so delighted to have had the opportunity to read this treasure. I enjoyed the intertwining of both contemporary and historical story plot-lines centered on the beauty of words, language and all it’s foibles.
Liar’s Dictionary is set in London on the Swanson’s Dictionary headquarters where Williams tells the story of two protagonists set 100 years apart. There are 26 chapters which coincide with the letters of the alphabet that alternates between the past and the present. In the past we read the story of Winceworth, a lexicographer among the many employed, and in the present is Mallory who narrates her story as the sole intern/employee tasked to find mountweazels (false entries) before it is digitized.
This story is poignant and thought provoking. Made to be read slow, enjoyed and savored. I loved how the themes of this book is relevant to many of today’s social issues. Quite an enjoyable reading experience.