Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman

While reading Winchester's "The Professor and the Madman", I was really unsure of whether I would enjoy this book. When I think of the dictionary, which is the point of focus for this novel, I often theoretically yawn. Although I find vocabulary acquisition to be an imperative facet of education, I was not necessarily enthused to read a book that tells the story of how the Oxford English Dictionary was established. However, I was surprised when I began to read.

What I found was that this story made me feel multiple emotions. As the story told of how a man in a psychiatric ward was the leading contributor to this dictionary's first edition, I found it hilarious that the English language could have been defined by a madman. However, in Chapter 10: The Unkindest Cut, I was troubled by the grotesque act of self-mutilation that is performed by Dr. Minor. As the author described Minor's life as "solitary" on page 189, I am not surprised that he went mad. Although many situations in which people act insane are often depicted to be humorous, the events in this chapter seemed very disturbing to me.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to college students. I would not teach it at the high school level because of some of the explicit content. However, I enjoyed how witty this novel is, and I specially loved the format in which the author defined specific, relevant words as if they were being read from the dictionary.