The Dictionary of Lost Words is set within the history of the long gestation of the Oxford English Dictionary from the late 19thC to the 1920s, and Pip Williams has used real people and events to great effect in this story.
Esme’s father is an assistant to one of the editors of the dictionary, and as her mother died soon after Esme’s birth, the little girl grows up under the ‘sorting table’ in the Repository – a big garden shed at the editor’s home. She is looked after by Lizzie, the editor’s maid, who started in service at the age of 12.
Esme’s love of words travels along two tracks: the official one where what the editors say go into the dictionary with acceptable meanings; and her own – a collection gathered over years of words important to women and not necessarily ‘acceptable’.
Her collection becomes a metaphor for her own life. On the one hand, she is the daughter of a respected assistant and becomes an assistant in her turn, trusted with dealing with ‘slips’ and other activities. And then there is the Esme with a secret hidden from all but those closest to her, a very female secret. To add to the layers, Pip Williams introduces the suffragette battles of the time, in all their variations from polite letters to the Times to arson. Where does Esme fit into all this, how should she be involved?
The Dictionary of Lost Words is a beautifully written tale of searching for self, of heartbreak, fidelity, and love (not just the romantic kind) set against the landscape of a rapidly changing world. Highly recommended.
More reviews here and my monthly round up of what I’ve read here.