The Professor and the Madman

By: Simon Winchester

Narrated by: Simon Winchester

Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Hidden within the rituals of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary is a fascinating mystery. Professor James Murray was the distinguished editor of the OED project. Dr. William Chester Minor, an American surgeon who had served in the Civil War, was one of the most prolific contributors to the dictionary, sending thousands of neat, hand-written quotations from his home. After numerous refusals from Minor to visit his home in Oxford, Murray set out to find him. It was then that Murray would finally learn the truth about Minor - that, in addition to being a masterly wordsmith, he was also an insane murderer locked up in Broadmoor, England's harshest asylum for criminal lunatics. The Professor and the Madman is the unforgettable story of the madness and genius that contributed to one of the greatest literary achievements in the history of English letters.

©1998 Simon Winchester (P)1999 HarperCollins Publishers Inc., All Rights Reserved, Harper Audio, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"The linguistic detective story of the decade." (New York Times Magazine)

Surprised how much I enjoyed this book

I had no prior knowledge of this book or story but was very pendant surprised to find it a delightfully told tale of what would arguably be a very dull subject.

Mr Winchester manages to write this on a way anyone can enjoy. Having read it, I'm not surprised to find a film has been made. Add this one to your library.

A Well Balanced Book With Many Great Parts

Would you consider the audio edition of The Professor and the Madman to be better than the print version?

It certainly benefited being read by the author. You can hear the enthusiasm that he has for the subject in his reading.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

It was very well put together and did a great job giving details on major events, characters, and settings. I learned a lot that I had no idea of prior.

What about Simon Winchester’s performance did you like?

As stated earlier, you can tell that he is passionate on the subject.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

mad·ness
ˈmadnəs/
noun:
madness: the state of being mentally ill, especially severely.

Any additional comments?

This was something that I picked up on a whim and the book exceeded my expectations. It went much deeper into subjects than I thought that it would. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys learning something new about the world that we all live in.

Cannot finish the book

So far the book is interesting, but it will no longer play. It keeps stopping at the same part (with more than 4hours to go). Not sure what the problem is or if anyone else has had this issue. I’m not sure if it’s a technical difficulty on my device’s part or the audiobook itself.

Surprised at how gory this book was

I love words and love dictionaries (which is good because my spelljng is awful). As a child my family read a lot of books and played a lot of word games and dinner table discussions always involved a trip to the dictionary. In college I discovered there was an OED and I've been hooked by the story of the making of it ever since. I have wanted to partake of this book for a long time, but never got around to it until I happened to read an historical fiction account in "The Dictionary of Lost Words". After that I had to read a part of the true story. Sadly, it didn't really live quite up to the hype. Good book, not a great book, but very informative. The narrator was wonderful and the interview at the end of the audio book was well worth the listen.

Perfect example of a quality audible book.

Simon Winchester presents us with an amazing story about a piece of history that I would have never considered interesting or significant. The accomplishment of the combined efforts of the two main characters Minor & Murray added to scores of other volunteers is one if not the greatest achievement in the history of the English language.

The story is presented in a very logical yet unassuming manner, and maybe the perfect example of an audible book selection. The narrators voice is crisp, clear, and expressive.

Listen, enjoy, and recommend to a friend.

A Story of Murder and Redemption

“I think that people like…the rituals of lexicography. They find it romantic; they find the story of dictionary making something that, if they can get to it painlessly and through the story of a murderer and the American Civil War..they find it an agreeable thing to do...” Thus, Simon Winchester in his discussion with John Simpson, editor of the OED, that appears as the last cut of this recording. And he’s right; listening to this book is a very agreeable thing to do.

I admit that, at the start I had some personal preferences to overcome. Except for Manchester and Reid’s biography of Churchill (and books written by Churchill himself) I avoid history written by journalists. Just as professional historians can tend to dullness, journalists can err on the side of breeziness, a lightness of touch that fails to get at the true gist of a subject.

In his acknowledgements Winchester takes full responsibility, of course, for any missteps and the farthest thing from my mind is to be ungenerous. This book is indeed a wonderful listen. But when I hear that the American Civil War was fought over “patches of land at Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Antietam and scores of other unsung and unremembered trophies…” I cringe. The fighting wasn’t about territory per se; except for Vicksburg, the strategic value of those fields was temporary at best. Rather than “trophies” to be collected, when the smoke cleared both side moved on. The resonance of those place names is, on the other hand, more durable; they are far from being “unsung and unremembered”.

More seriously, in a book about lexicography and dictionary-making we have a right to expect verbal precision; indeed, the subject put me on higher alert for it than usual. So, when Winchester lists “muskets” among the “new weapons” that filled so many graves and hospital beds, I cringed again. The weapon that created so many casualties was a refinement on the musket—far more accurate at far greater ranges—called the rifle (or rifled) musket.

Please understand that I’m not trying to be picky or pedantic. Slips like these just make me wary of the overall quality of any book. I persisted, partly because Winchester is such a superb reader, partly because he’s such a superb writer. Mostly because his real subject—not an overview of our Civil War but the making of the greatest English dictionary—is so gripping. The brief history of the evolution of the English dictionary alone is worth the price of admission (in the 17th Century only “hard” words were included). We learn what set Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary above all previous efforts, how the Oxford English Dictionary came about in the first place, how the son of a Scottish draper ended up at the helm of this majestic project and, most amazing of all, how a certified criminal lunatic from America (by way of Ceylon) came to be one of the OED’s most important contributors. It is indeed what Winchester calls it in the discussion at the end of this recording: a story of murder and redemption.

If you love our language, revel in its literature and spend at least a few minutes every other day or so wondering, “Now, where did that word come from?” this book is for you.

There is a myriad of points I’d like to discuss with Winchester over drinks (I’d even buy). For example, he can’t imagine Shakespeare writing without a reference book that told him if he were using a word correctly, or spelling it right, or being grammatical. I always supposed that’s what set Shakespeare—and Spencer, and Sydney, and Donne—free. Having turned my own hand to the crafting of publication-worthy verse, I’ve often envied Stratford-Upon-Avon’s favorite son for the license he enjoyed, coining words as he went. While I’m all for rules and regularization, I suspect they’re what stands between us and another Elizabethan age. Agree or disagree, points like this are just another aspect of this book that makes it so engaging.

I particularly appreciated Winchester’s coda, a solemn reminder that, as painful and yet uplifting as Doctor Minor’s story is, we should not forget the tragedy that set everything in motion: the doctor’s random murder of a husband and father and the fates of his wife and children.

Finally, though I never do more than skim (if that) over an author’s acknowledgements page, this one received my full attention. Only fitting, I thought, for a book about giving due credit for the creation of a book.

May not be for every one

Parts can be a bit dry but in all it is a great story as well as an interesting history lesson

Wonderful Story, Well Told

Would you listen to The Professor and the Madman again? Why?

It's not always the best idea to have an author read his or her own work, but in this case Simon Winchester does a wonderful job of bringing his book to audio. The book itself has been reviewed so widely I feel silly adding anything, but it was great fun to see how cleverly Winchester weaves the different strands of his story together, without allowing any of the peripheral material to overwhelm the central narrative. I give it four stars only because there were several points at which Winchester indulges in speculation that doesn't illuminate or inform.

Very good book, just shy of great

Simon Winchester's "The Professor and the Madman" is a poignant story. The author does a superb job as narrator, although it took me a while to realize he was switching between an English and Scots accent to differentiate between narrator and character voice.

I didn't give this book five stars for all categories because the chapters about the history of dictionaries are agonizingly dull. I listened for as long as I could stand, skipped to the next chapter, heard more about dictionary history, and skipped to the next chapter where the text returned to the actual narrative arc.

Taken for granted no longer

I've never before considered the dictionary with such interest before! I've completely taken it for granted. That the idea and reality of a dictionary didn't exist and actually had to be wished, worked and wanted into being is perfectly logical, but incredible to think about. The overwhelming amount of work that goes into a single entry is mind-boggling. I would be terrible at that job; when asked to define a term I know perfectly well, I often stumble about trying to succinctly and clearly teach it to another. I wasn't so much interested in the other part of the story, however, (the professor or the madman) so I think I'd have preferred to read his other book - The Meaning of Everything - that deals more exclusively with the OED itself, rather than this one.

I enjoyed Simon Winchester's reading of his own work--he's got a great voice and a good ear. Well done.