The Penguin Dictionary of Epigrams

by Mark Cohen

Book Overview

There you are, writing a letter or a speech, or even just arguing with your friends, when you think: there must be a succint way of putting this. Surely a single one-liner could do a better job than... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140513957
• ISBN13: 9780140513950
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 482 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Good Quotes Need To Be Quoted

I make a living writing epigrams. And you know I eat, sleep, read and write epigrams. I even dream about the damn things. So I know a good reference book when I see one and this is definitely it. I also know what makes a pretty good epigram and I am not ashamed to admit that much of what I read becomes embedded in what I write. As Oscar Wilde admitted when he told James Whistler about an epigram he had just heard. "I wish I had said that," Wilde said. Whistler replied: "You will, Oscar, you will." While the Table of Contents is a bit too brief for my liking, the Index more than makes up for the brevity with listings first by author and then divided into categories that bring each of the epigrams into focus according to the key points each makes or reflects. While some may regard this an encyclopedia of concise and sardonic wisdom, I think of it more as a source book for short and pithy comments on life, love and philosophy that are not only intellectually stimulating but marvelously entertaining. And, of course, they truly do inform what I write and publish at [...] (which I am sure that Oscar Wilde would be reading and quoting today if he were still alive) as well as in latest book where every chapter begins with an epigram Citizen Poet's Take on Tiger Woods: Ten Ways to Play the Lie (Citizen Poet's Take on...).