Product Description

Long established as the ultimate reference for anyone with an interest in the English language, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable features tens of thousands of encyclopedic entries examining the origins and significance of popular words, phrases, allusions and cultural references. Its delightfully diverse content includes cultural, historical and mythological references, beliefs and customs, proper names, literary characters, idioms and slang. First published in 1870 and now in its 17th edition, this ever-popular collection has moved with the times to include such up-to-date material as Beckingham Palace, Hogwarts and bling alongside wonderful stories from past and present.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #145601 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1560 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
An early highlight of this fully revised millennium edition of Brewer's is Terry Pratchett's short, sweetly ironic preface. It's entirely appropriate, given Brewer's has been the bread-and-butter of curious, self-educated working men and women for 130 years, and that this decade's great demotic writer should be invited to watch the dust settle on yet another deposit of curious knowledge. ("It's an education in itself, seeing [the Fab Four] take their place with old Roman senators and mythological fauna ... ").

Brewer's is famously, fabulously useless. There is not the remotest possibility that it contains anything you might actually be looking up at the time. In this, it closely resembles that great modern intellectual irritant, the World Wide Web. Where it bests the upstart Web is in its wit, its erudition and in its disposability. Mind you, frustrated users should wield the new edition with caution. Adrian Room has introduced French jargon, inkhorn literary terms and many more historical and fictional characters to the familiar "alms-basket of words".

But it is through the number of extra phrases and quotations that Room truly distinguishes this edition--and who can resist passages of verse like the one which accompanies a new entry for Technogamia, a 1618 play of such mind-crushing tediousness that James I "made several efforts to leave after sitting out the first two acts"? By complete contrast, there's never a dull moment to be had with this great, daft, pointless, wonderful brick of a book. --Simon Ings

FAMILY HISTORY MONTHLY
"An invaluable reference tool of extraordinary breadth."

About the Author
John Ayto is a writer and lexicographer and his authorial credits include The Oxford Dictionary of Rhyming Slang and the Bloomsbury Dictionary of Word Origins.

Customer Reviews

Eclectic, Erratic, Eccentric … Essential!
Once upon a time, Brewer's used to sit on my bookshelf gathering dust. It was, I felt, the sort of book that, as a lover of reference books, one ought to own … but, I realised, I never actually USED it. Then, one day, I took it down, blew off the dust and looked up something, I think I was truing to glean some additional in formation about heraldry. Four hours later, I came up for air, having spent a blissful afternoon doing the literary equivalent of “surfing” - following one cross reference to another from Greek mythology, through theology, Harry Potter, sporting slang, Tudor eating habits, demonology, pop groups, Somerset folk lore and much more besides.

I then took the book to bed and proceeded to read it cover to cover (not at one sitting I hasten to add). I know of no other reference books with which one could do this without eventually dying of fatigue or terminal boredom. I emerged exalted, educated and converted. There may be little logic or reason behind the eclectic, eccentric, inconsistent criteria for inclusion and exclusion but, once you have grasped the spirit, if not the law, behind them you will fall in love with the book, occasional inaccuracies and all. This explains why it defies the internet, literary competition and remains in print to this day, loved like a faithful if slightly dippy ancient family dog by all those who have taken the time to explore between its idiosyncratic pages.

A snare for the unwary
I would like to thank the previous reviewers whose enthusiastic reviews persuaded me to click the "Add to Shopping Basket" button. I would also like to thank them for their warnings about how you are likely to get caught up in it once you open the book. I must have disappeared into it for a couple of hours the first time I opened it, the day it was delivered, completely mangling my time-table for the rest of that day. A couple of days later, at the weekend, I had a visitor who homed straight in on it almost before getting his coat off and I got nothing but incoherent grunts in reply to offers of cups of tea, cake and biscuits after that. Not normally a rude person. It's definitely a trap for the unsuspecting casual browser. It's impossible (or at least very difficult) to plot a straight course through the book. I've tried and failed. First, you go to look up something specific, then you follow a cross reference to another page, then you get ambushed by something interesting that catches your eye between this page and that and before you know what time it is, people are demanding their dinner and you haven't even peeled the potatoes.

Highly recommended, but beware! Exercise caution. Dip into it when you have plenty of time to spare or be prepared to employ more self-discipline than I've yet managed -- harden your resolve and snap it shut when you've found the information you were seeking (if you're will-power is strong enough).

More than just a reference book
While the title of this book would seem to indicate that it contains only passages or phrases from fables, it offers an awful lot more.

The references inside cover a multitude of different things. There are references to mythology, ancient history, everyday expressions, and new or relatively new words that creep into the language - words like Paparazzi, or Godzilla. The book is really a mix of language and general knowledge.

There are entries for real people, and also for characters from legends, fairy tales and plays. If you're like me and are full of useless information and trivia, then you'll love this book, because it's full of stuff like that. This is where it differs from an ordinary dictionary, or encyclopaedia. You can pick it up any time and find something of interest. Many of the entries are like very short synopses or stories in their own right. This book is a great tool for anyone needing a prompt, or ideas, to write an essay, or article. Because of it's broad range of subjects and the way they are presented.

Open the book at any page and something will catch your eye. You'll find yourself saying, "I didn't know that" or " Oh that's why we say that"
The book is well laid out and each entry includes the origin of the phrase or word. It's a large book at almost 1300 pages but it does cover an awful lot of different subject areas. While it is basically sold as a reference book it's far more than that, it's also enjoyable and good fun to read.