Born in Ohio in 1842, journalist, short-story writer and critic Ambrose Bierce developer into one of this country's most celebrated and cynical wits - a merciless "American Swift" whose literary barbs were aimed at folly, self-delusion, politics, business, religion, literature and the arts. In this splendid "dictionary" of epigrams, essays, verses and vignettes, you'll find over 1,000 pointed definitions, e.g. Congratulation ("The civility of envy"), Coward ("One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs") and Historian ("A broad-gauge gossip"). Anyone who likes to laugh will love The Devil's Dictionary. Anyone looking for a bon mot to enliven their next speech, paper or conversation will have a field day thumbing through what H.L. Mencken called "some of the most gorgeous witticisms in the English language."

You may have noticed that I have a bit of a passion for quotage. My front page usually has a funny or poignant phrase from some person or other who has the ability to say things better than me. Over my years of collecting quotes, some of the most amusing have come from this collection, though it wasn't until recently I'd actually heard of The Devil's Dictionary. As soon as I learned their source I knew I had to read it, and so ask and Amazon shall deliver. I got my hands on it today, and no doubt Bierce's words will be gracing my quote of the day section for some time to come.

November 26th 2002
Dipping in and out randomly

This is dead good fun, but not the sort of book you can just read from cover to cover. I pick it up, have a chuckle and move on knowing it's done it's job. In places it's very witty, but being very old I find some of the wit tends to miss it's mark because of the change in language. When it's good it's very very good, and when it's bad it's tragic. I'm glad I finally have it though, and can see that the stuff that I've seen quoted over the years is very much the cream of the crop...and it's sometimes a very dodgy crop indeed!