Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions
by Elizabeth Webber, Mike Feinsilber
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth Webber, Mike FeinsilberEdition: Paperback
Published: 1999-09
ISBN: 0877796289
Number of pages: 592
Publisher: Merriam-Webster
Book Reviews of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions
Book Review: years old, but still fun and educational to read
Summary: 4 Stars
This is like a shorter, more accessible, and American version of Brewer's Dictionary, which this book does cite as a reference. Other differences are that this provides a pronunciation guide for certain words and that contextual examples are drawn mostly from periodicals pre-1999.
It includes allusions to poems ("snows of yesteryear" and "waste its sweetness on the desert air"), the Bible ("Sodom and Gomorrah"), 20th century novels ("Peyton Place" and the "Snopes family" in Faulkner's works), Latin usage ("ex cathedra") and TV ("Eddie Haskell" and "Ozzie and Harriet").
There are explanations of such terms as Daliesque, scorched earth, ignorant armies (forces blindly fighting with each other with no understanding of whom they are fighting or why), gnomes of Zurich, Walpurgis Night, zero-sum game, Mobius strip, Peter Principle, Heimlich maneuver, and non-denial denial.
Reading it, I also learned that the NSA was known as the "puzzle palace."
Summary of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions
New Yorker founding editor Harold Ross, according to this book's preface, is said to have asked writer James Thurber once, with bewilderment, "Is Moby Dick the man or the whale?" Well, even Homer nods (Horace). But, Harold! Thou shouldst be living at this hour (Wordsworth). Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions is a Big Rock Candy Mountain (American folk song) for anyone who feels amid the alien corn (Keats) when it comes to understanding allusions everyone else seems to grok (Heinlein). Thanks to the blood, sweat, and tears (Churchill) of authors Elizabeth Webber and Mike Feinsilber--compiling this allusional Rosetta stone must have taken a Herculean, nay Brobdingnagian (Swift) effort--we can come in from the cold (popularized by le Carr?) of the dark night of the soul (St. John of the Cross) and dine out on (G. Gordon Liddy and others) these allusions for years to come. --Jane SteinbergA guide to references commonly used in speech and writing. Explains more than 900 allusions. Entries include examples from todays leading media. A must for serious readers, language lovers, and ESL students.
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