Oxford Dictionary of Quotations [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

The quotations are arranged alphabetically, by author, so browsing provides insight into the authors quoted, more so than do compendiums that are organize by theme. There is also, however, a full thematic index, starting with Administration, Age, and America, and running the alphabetical gamut through to War, Weather, and Youth. And that is followed by a 283-page comprehensive keyword index. If you needed to fault Oxford with something, it might be the small print, but it certainly wouldn't be the thoroughness or cross-referenceability.

There's Kingsley Amis on hangovers ("His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as its mausoleum") and the sexes ("Women are really much nicer than men. No wonder we like them"). There's Woody Allen on immortality ("I don't want to achieve immortality through my work--I want to achieve it through not dying") and Fred Allen on committees ("A group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done"). Spiro T. Agnew is on record as saying, "If you've seen one city slum you've seen them all." And Konrad Adenauer weighs in with "A thick skin is a gift from God."

There are pages of special categories, such as one of advertising slogans ("Let your fingers do the walking," "It's finger-licking good," and "Beanz meanz Heinz") and three pages of last words ("God will pardon me, it is His trade," from Heinrich Heine; "If this is dying, then I don't think much of it," by Lytton Strachey; and "It's been so long since I've had champagne," by Anton Chekhov). And there are pages of film lines, misquotations, epitaphs, telegrams, and toasts, too. Oxford's Dictionary of Quotations is a wonderfully reliable and inclusive quotation reference, and it's a lot of fun, as well. --Stephanie Gold -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

This is no ordinary book of quotations. As one would expect from the publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary, this work is thoroughly cross-referenced, packed with special features, and, most importantly for a collection of quotations, provides citations and context for each entry. Among the special features set off in boxes throughout the text are lists of epitaphs, catchphrases, borrowed titles, misquotations, opening lines, last words, and film lines and titles. The keyword index is exhaustive.

Since its first edition, in 1941, the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has offered a wide array of quotations, succeeding in preserving the wisdom of the ages as well as presenting the latest catchphrases and sound bites. The fifth edition (1999) restored sections devoted to proverbs and nursery rhymes that had been cut from an earlier edition; these sections remain. That edition had paid particular attention to the sacred texts of several world religions, and those passages are also enshrined in this new edition. A comparison of this edition with its predecessor found that although George Abbott, Beryl Bainbridge, Lord Bancroft, Antonio Callado, Salvador Dali, Newton Gingrich, Ice Cube, Barry Scheck, Emma Thompson, and Raquel Welch have been dropped, Elizabeth David, Amelia Earhart, Carly Fiorina, Penelope Fitzgerald, Indira Gandhi, Bill Gates, Frank Gehry, Rudolph Giuliani, David Hare, Eddie Izzard, Frida Kahlo, Donna Karan, Estee Lauder, Alison Lurie, Thurgood Marshall, Georgia O'Keefe, Vladimir Putin, J. K. Rowling, Ernest Shackleton, Ariel Sharon, and Sam Walton have been added.

Large collections will want to add this edition to the previous ones on their shelves; smaller collections should consider it as a way to add depth to their quotation holdings. Carolyn Mulac
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