The Devil's Dictionary

Compiled from newspaper columns and issued in book form in 1906 and 1911, this satirical lexicon defines ordinary English words in a bitter, comic sense. Bierce's entries treat politics, religion, law, marriage, business, and war as forms of self-interest dressed as virtue. The alphabet runs from common nouns to abstracts, each gloss short enough to read as a joke and sharp enough to reverse the dictionary's claim of neutral meaning. Cross-references and verse snippets appear. The work is a sequence of definitions, not a novel and not a standard reference dictionary.

Quarter bound in black buckram with gilt title and marble printed paper covers. Black slipcase.