The Liar's Dictionary

The Liar's Dictionary follows two lexicographers working at the same London publishing house in different centuries. In the present day, Mallory works as an intern tasked with finding mountweazels—fake entries—in a historic dictionary, while in the 1890s, Peter Winceworth secretly creates and inserts these false definitions into the original text. The parallel narratives trace Mallory's modern-day investigation alongside Winceworth's Victorian-era disruptions. Their stories connect through the fictitious entries hidden within Swansby's New Encyclopaedic Dictionary, revealing how language can both unite and divide across time. The novel explores themes of truth, deception, and the malleability of words through its intertwined storylines. The dictionary itself becomes a bridge between past and present, containing layers of meaning about how humans communicate and connect. This linguistic puzzle-box of a novel examines authenticity, identity, and the power of definition—both in language and in life. Through its dual timelines, the book questions who controls meaning and what constitutes truth in both dictionaries and personal narratives.

Readers find this novel clever but uneven. Many note its wordplay and linguistic creativity, with one reader calling it "a treat for dictionary nerds." The parallel narratives and exploration of language appeal to those who enjoy experimental fiction. Likes: - Sharp humor and witty prose - LGBTQ+ representation - Unique structure linking two time periods - Inside look at dictionary-making Dislikes: - Plot moves slowly - Characters feel underdeveloped - Writing style can be pretentious - Some find it too self-conscious Several readers mention struggling to connect with the characters or maintain interest. One Amazon reviewer noted: "The premise is better than the execution." Ratings: Goodreads: 3.7/5 (6,800+ ratings) Amazon: 3.9/5 (460+ ratings) LibraryThing: 3.8/5 (300+ ratings) The book scores higher among readers who work with language professionally (editors, writers, academics) than general audiences.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams Through the lens of dictionary-making at Oxford, this novel follows a woman who collects words that have been discarded or ignored by male lexicographers.

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt A prodigy's intellectual journey includes linguistic puzzles, translation challenges, and an intense exploration of meaning through multiple languages.

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov A novel masquerading as a scholarly edition of a poem unfolds through footnotes and annotations, playing with language and meaning through unreliable narration.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl A murder mystery structured as an academic syllabus incorporates encyclopedic references and literary wordplay throughout its narrative.

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester The true story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary reveals the relationship between its editor and a major contributor who was an asylum inmate.

📚 The novel alternates between two time periods (Victorian and modern-day) with both main characters working on the same dictionary at Swansby's publishing house, separated by over 120 years. 🔤 Author Eley Williams is an expert in lexicography and wrote her PhD dissertation on dictionary entries that contain errors, known as "mountweazels" or fictitious entries. 📖 The book's concept was partly inspired by real-life "mountweazels" like "dord," which appeared in Webster's Third New International Dictionary from 1934 to 1947 as a ghost word meaning "density in physics." ✍️ The title pays homage to Ambrose Bierce's "The Devil's Dictionary," a satirical reference work published in 1911 that provided cynical definitions for common words. 📚 Williams created dozens of original mountweazels (fake dictionary entries) specifically for the novel, including words like "querulous" defined as "experiencing the particular sensation of being watched by ducks."