BOOK REVIEW – AMBROSE BIERCE – THE DEVIL’S
DICTIONARY 1911
A satirical and timeless dictionary that takes a series of swipes at political and religious double meanings among many other things. The dictionary started as a minor
newspaper column aside, before Bierce made it into a complete short book in its own right. Entries are frequently hilarious. Examples, here given in paraphrasing, include - A - Appeal, another shot at the dice, Alligator being an American crocodile, and therefore better than any other kind, Ambidextrous means being able to pick pockets to the left or right of the victim, etc. The tone of the book is highly cynical, bitter and tongue in cheek. The devilment is roguish wit rather than any form of Satanism. He notes sardonically that the ancient Greek
academies taught morals and
philosophy, while modern university academies mainly teach football. Sometimes Bierce can be scurrilous towards religion and God, though, as in his
definition of Deluge where he
sees the Biblical flood as an early failed experiment in baptism where the sinners were washed away with their sins by accident. Some
definitions are quick one-line jokes, while others receive short poems and witty, sometimes genuine quotations in their support. Under J we learn that Jesters lost their status as royal fools when people realized that their governing kings and politicians were foolish
enough themselves without needing to hire a jester. My favourite definition is that of the Tsetse Fly as a cure for insomnia, in that it induces sleeping sickness or death, though Bierce sees this as a textbook definition of American novelists too.
Some of his definitions carry lovely anecdotes. On serials, newspaper
stories told over several issues, Bierce relates the sad tale of James
F Bowman, who, with an un-named co-writer, contrived to keep a story
going in perpetuity, as a lifetime income maker, only to fall out with his friend who killed off all the characters on him in a shipwreck
final instalment. A tomb is seen as the final resting place for the dead but only until archaeologists decide to dig us up and put us in museums instead.
The letter X gets only one entry, dismissing it as a useless letter
used best in abridgements, such as reducing Christmas to Xmas, etc. He attacks Masonic bodies with lists of made up secret societies, and the
collection of religious reliquaries are scathingly lampooned with
reference to feathers from the cockerel that crowed to Peter on the
day of Christ''s crucifixion. The book is as funny and thoughtful now as when it was written.
More reviews about the THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY