The Oxford English Dictionary has been around for less than 100 years. However, not many know why it was created, who created it, and how much work it took to write this book of words. In, The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, Simon Winchester strives to answer these questions for his readers. Winchester, the author of the book, was born in London, on September 28th 1944 (“Welcome”). By the time he wrote this book, the dictionary and all of the events that occurred to make it happen were still very recent. He was able to successfully acquire all of the information needed to write this book because it was all so fresh. Winchester was an only child of Bernard and Andree Winchester, …show more content…
This book takes place in both the United States and London, so Winchester was able to not only know the information correctly, but also explain the ideas and customs of both places across the novel in great detail. He not only gives his readers information, but he provides a background to add credibility to his writing. That was one of the facts that caused me as a reader to keep reading and digging deeper into this book. Journalism was not all he did though, he also liked to study astronomy, was into cider-making, and stamp-collecting (“Welcome) as pointed out in the article Welcome. Winchester published his famous book, The Professor and the Madman, in English in 1998. It makes sense that it would be published in English because the individuals that would most likely be interested in how the Oxford English Dictionary was created, are those who speak English. He probably acquired a much bigger range of audience with it published in English, then if it would have been published in any other …show more content…
One is William Chester Minor and the other one is James Murray. Winchester carefully explains the lives of these two men and how their lives collide and are able to come together to create one of the most important books in history. It starts off with Minors life. Minor came from a wealthy family and went to college. He was a very educated man that loved to learn new information. He was obsessed with knowledge. After going to school for many years he became a physician in the civil war. This is a major turning point of his life which causes his life to start going in a downwards spiral. While serving as a physician, he is sent to an asylum in the United States for 18 months. He was sent to an asylum because he started acting strange and a little crazy. These actions seemed to be caused by the traumatizing events he had to endure in war. Once he is let go from the asylum, he decides to move to London to start a new life and relax. While he is there, his hallucinations get worse and he ends up shooting an innocent man in the middle of the night. This man was shot in Lambeth by Minor who thought the innocent man was trying to kill him. This incident causes Minor to get thrown back into an asylum, but this time he is put in an asylum called Broadmoor which is located in London. While all of that is occurring, there is a completely different life being lived by
In the novels The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis and My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, two young boys are faced with the challenge of learning the moral and ethical codes that will shape their futures. Kenny Watson and Tim Meeker live in very different times, but they face events that complicate their lives. Though one boy learns his morals through playful encounters and the other is forced to educate himself during a war, the conclusion of each story shows that both characters have successfully found sets of rules to follow.
In the book The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore, it is about two men that not only share the same name but also have very similar lifestyles. Both Wes Moore’s grew up in rough neighborhoods in Baltimore, exposed to drug abuse, poverty, violence, and death. They both were fatherless, struggled with education and ran into some trouble with the law. Although, as similar as their lives were what separated Wes Moore and the other Wes Moore in the end, were the decisions made that impacted their future. Wes Moore lived in Baltimore with his mother Joy, his father Westly, and his two sisters Nikki and Shani.
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000
Skultans, Vieda. English Madness: Ideas on Insanity 1580-1890. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. 1979.
Murray, J. A., & Burchfield, R. W. (1933). The Oxford English Dictionary (Vol. 1): Clarendon Press Oxford.
McDonnell, Helen, Neil E. Nakadate, John Pfordresher, and Thomas E. Shoemate. ENGLAND in Literature. Medallion ed. N.p.: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1990. 69-80. Print.
Throughout the novel, Holden calls himself a ‘madman’ due to his confusion of his society. Holden thinks of himself as a ‘madman’ because there is no one that he relates to. Mr. Antolini was Holden’s encyclopedia but Mr. Antolini’s character was demolished when he patted Holden on his head (Salinger 192).Holden became extremely nervous so he left Mr. Antolini's house. Holden leaving the house results in him having no one to question so he is still confused. However, Holden running away further proves that he isn’t crazy, he got scared; he wasn’t naive to stay and find out if Mr. Antolini would’ve gone further than patting him on the head. Although Holden calls himself a ‘madman,’ he is not. Holden has goals that are virtually impossible to achieve but that does not make him a nutcase. Holden is a teenager who is trying to figure himself out. This phase of his life does not necessarily mean that he is crazy.
The Yellow Wallpaper as a Guide To Insanity "There comes John, and I must put this away- he hates to have me write a word" (p659). As evident by the above quote, Gilman places the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" as secluded as she could be; she is placed in a large house, surrounded only by her husband and by little help (Jennie), when it is unfortunately clear that her relationship with her husband is based on distance and misunderstanding: "It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so"(p 663). Gilman further confines her narrator as it becomes clear that the poor soul has absolutely no one to talk to; that is, no one who can understand her. The narrator is cornered by her loved ones, she is isolated from the world under her husband-doctor orders, she is thus physically confined to her shaky mental realm. The next aspect of the narrator that zooms us into her state is her tone: "I really have discovered something at last..
Read, D. (2005). New World, Known World : Shaping Knowledge in Early Anglo-American Writing. Columbia: University of Missouri Press
"Oxford English Dictionary." Search Results - Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Web. 19 Mar. 2011. .
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1907-21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000 http://www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000
In “The Madman,” Nietzsche describes a man going into a town, speaking about his beliefs, and being derided for doing so. However, with further analysis of several elements of the story, a deeper meaning behind the passage becomes clear. Nietzsche argues that morals cannot exist without God, and that atheists must therefore reject morality, and choose what is right and wrong for themselves. Nietzsche does this by using the character of the madman as a mouthpiece to express his own ideas. The first element of the parable that must be examined in order to understand the passage is a symbol, God, which represents morality in the story. The second element to be examined is the madman’s belief that humans have killed God. The implications of this
British English is a very formal form of the English language. The UK practices formal speaking and dictation while the United States of America uses slang and informal English. Our spelling of the same words even differs from each other. In the United
England, England is a satire written by Julian Barnes at the end of the 20th century (1998) in a post-modernist environment in which the USA has become the first world power putting England aside. Inside the novel we can see how Barnes analyze the defects and lacks of his own country; it is about a harsh criticism of the ‘Englishness’.