The Professor and The Madman

A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

De: Simon Winchester

Narrado por: Simon Winchester

A New York Times Notable Book

The Professor and the Madman is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary—and literary history.

The making of the OED was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, was stunned to discover that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. But their surprise would pale in comparison to what they were about to discover when the committee insisted on honoring him. For Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

Masterfully researched and eloquently written, The Professor and the Madman “is the linguistic detective story of the decade.” (William Safire, New York Times Magazine)

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

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.