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The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations ( Oxford University Press, USA )
Release Date: 2004-12-09
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List Price: $50.00
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Product Description
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has been long hailed as the most literary quotation book available, and the newest edition is the largest and most comprehensive of its kind. Over 20,000 quotations from every era and every location bring you the wisdom of ages and the sound bites of today. The text is a browser's paradise that allows the reader the identify who said what, and when, and where. Here readers will find in one volume the wit and wisdom of humanity--the finest lines to be found from Shakespeare, the Bible, Mark Twain, Alan Greenspan, and hundreds of other writers, philosophers, political figures, and entertainers. This new edition includes over 200 new entries including sixty-one quotable Americans. This updated sixth edition encompasses current trends in politics and culture with quotations such as "States like these constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world" (George Bush), and "It's a good thing" (Martha Stewart). Many other new additions are older in origin, yet enlighten events of the twenty-first century. Each illuminating entry contains in-depth details of the earliest traceable source, biographical cross-references, birth and death dates, and a career brief. With both a thematic and keyword index, scholars and readers thumbing through the book will easily be able to find quotations for all occasions. Ranging from the profound, to cogent, to witty, these quotations will add spice to your writing and conversation. An ideal reference for any home or office library, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is a perennial source of entertainment and inspiration for public speakers, writers, or anyone else who enjoys a sparkling line or spirited reply.
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Amazon.com Review
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is as impressive, erudite, enjoyable, and educational a tome as you might expect from Oxford. It's the sort of undertaking the press does very well. The first such dictionary, as compiled by Oxford, was published in 1953, and it's been tweaking, modifying, and updating it ever since. This new edition, the fifth, offers well over 20,000 quotations from more than 3,000 authors. Responding to correspondence from their readers, Oxford has restored some material from past editions, such as the proverbs and nursery-rhymes section. There's a much more inclusive attention to sacred texts of world religions, and 2,000 quotations are brand new. The quotations are arranged alphabetically, by author, so browsing provides insight into the authors quoted, more so than do compendiums that are organize by theme. There is also, however, a full thematic index, starting with Administration, Age, and America, and running the alphabetical gamut through to War, Weather, and Youth. And that is followed by a 283-page comprehensive keyword index. If you needed to fault Oxford with something, it might be the small print, but it certainly wouldn't be the thoroughness or cross-referenceability. There's Kingsley Amis on hangovers ("His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as its mausoleum") and the sexes ("Women are really much nicer than men. No wonder we like them"). There's Woody Allen on immortality ("I don't want to achieve immortality through my work--I want to achieve it through not dying") and Fred Allen on committees ("A group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done"). Spiro T. Agnew is on record as saying, "If you've seen one city slum you've seen them all." And Konrad Adenauer weighs in with "A thick skin is a gift from God." There are pages of special categories, such as one of advertising slogans ("Let your fingers do the walking," "It's finger-licking good," and "Beanz meanz Heinz") and three pages of last words ("God will pardon me, it is His trade," from Heinrich Heine; "If this is dying, then I don't think much of it," by Lytton Strachey; and "It's been so long since I've had champagne," by Anton Chekhov). And there are pages of film lines, misquotations, epitaphs, telegrams, and toasts, too. Oxford's Dictionary of Quotations is a wonderfully reliable and inclusive quotation reference, and it's a lot of fun, as well. --Stephanie Gold
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 It's... Good... Not For Me Though...
There's a plethora of quotes and people, it's an amazing book. It's by author name. My beef with it is...
Some of my favorite people are really slacked on. Most notably American writers, essayists and thinkers. Twain get barely a full page. Melville a few lines (Moby Dick has quite a few more worthy here) Thoreau, Emerson, even Churchill has some of my favorite lines he's said missing... Nietzsche too imo should have pages he has not even one. And more disappointed with.
NOW - there are more speakers here yeah the good thing, still, I expected more.
Now I've gotten the Yale's Book of Quotations. Almost half the quotes here but they have so much more from the names I mentioned above. I don't know maybe my American Bias but I selfishly give this book 3 stars for skimping imo on many of my favorite people.
(Not to say they don't have tons of names won't find other places deservingly and other famous people, notiable English writers... many pages (Blake, Lord Tennyson) Definitely poets are NOT skimped here, you'll find many great ones here that other books won't have.)
So don't get me wrong, it's not bad, and some of my favs DO have lots of quotes here and lines and poems. I just wish it had more, and it has tons n tons! =)
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 Not my cup of tea
The following comments refer to the second (1955) edition. Let us hope the third edition is substantially improved.
A stuffy, dated, donnish, and relentlessly Anglocentric compilation, reeking of the classics curriculum at Oxford. According to the preface, familiarity is the chief criterion for inclusion. Familiarity to whom, for heaven's sake? Professors of antique languages and literatures? Horace gets seven pages. Emily Dickinson gets two lines, as does Hawthorne. Melville and Conrad get nothing at all. "The horror! The horror!"
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 ********** TEN STARS!
Who said what, when and for what reason? If it's been said, written, shouted, exclaimed or moaned in a breathy sigh, you'll find it recorded here. Three-thousand years worth of quotes from everyone who has ever been anyone: generals, saints, writers, actors, politicians, judges, criminals, heroes, the infamous, the dying, the triumphant, the fictional and the mythical. In this magnficent volume you can search either by an individual name and see all listings for that person, or by subject, and see all recorded passages about whatever topic you wish to investigate. Great for public speakers, students, writers, or lovers of wit, excoriation, or profundity, and absolutely deserving of the word "Encyclopedia" in its title.
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 Good for long quotations from famous works ( pollockn )
This book is very different from the other quotation books I've used. It is well organized and indexed, but a large number of quotes are very large indeed. It is perhaps dominated by the Bible, Shakespeare, and a few other well-know authors/books. If you know something is from Shakespeare and you need to know where (which play, act, etc.), this book is for you. If you just collect quotes, as I do, it isn't all that helpful--Bartlett's is better for that purpose. Also, see Lieberman's 3500 quotes book and, especially, Braude's book of speakers' stories (exceptionally good). So, the Oxford book is a 3 or a 5 depending on how you want to use it. So, I gave it a 4. What can you do? As Virgil (as quoted in the book) says: "Trust one who has gone through it." Great reference text, but not a book to read through, IMHO.
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Complaint with format, not content ( cjr12 )
I have used previous editions of the Oxford book o' quotations and, until this edition, I considered this book a must-have for anyone that relies upon reference sources for quotations, as I do as a magazine editor.While probably trivial to most, the decision to place page numbers in the gutter rather than on the top-outside corners of each page, as in previous editions, is truly a pain. Think about it; most readers will search for quotes by topic, to which the excellent index will refer the reader by page. Tucking such (small) folios in the gutter is irritating when attempting to locate something quickly. Truly, this is a minor complaint, but I find myself using the previous edition and hope the next edition will rectify this flaw in the current edition's functionality...
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