Customer Reviews

The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations

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I found this book exceptionally educational and inviting. I recommend this book to any English major interested in literary quotations. The book is organized, concise and easy to follow. This purchase was well worth it!

When thinking about buying a book on quotations,one has a choise in buying one that is limited to one field such as Military,Science,Humor,Art,Music,Leadership,hit & Wisdom,Ethnics& Cultures,Lawyers,Doctors, etc.such as this one is;or one of a general nature.So,if your aim is to limit yourself to Literary quotes,this is ideal,but would disappoint if it is to be used for quotes in general.
One must also keep in mind ,that this an "Oxford" dictionary and the quotations are heavily weighted in favor of British Literature.
As with all quotation compilations;it is always a problem in organizing them or for the user finding them in the book.This book is good in that it has an Index that lists the quotations by Author and another one that lists them by Keyword.To further assist the user the quotations are organized in themes ,alphabetically.
There is also a short section o "How to Use the Dictionary".
For example;under "themes you get Thomas Carlyle,Lewis Carroll Catullus,Censorship,Cerventas,Raymond Chandler,etc.Now, if you look under Lewis Carroll,you will find 2 quotes;one by Ellen Terry,and one by Walter de la Mare.However under "Authors" you will find 15 listed by Lewis Carroll,one being about literature on page 203:5.Now under Themes,Literature has has 95 listings,but doesn't include the one on 203:5.
The point being,even with this much indexing,trying to find or refind a quote can be difficult,so if you find one you might go searching for later ,you'd better have your own method of "tagging it".