The Devil's Dictionaries: The Best of the Devil's Dictionary and the American Heretic's Dictionary - Softcover

Bierce, Ambrose; Bufe, Chaz

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1884365353 ISBN 13: 9781884365355

Publisher: See Sharp Press, 2004

Synopsis

This compilation of hundreds of biting, witty, cruel, and hilarious definitions combines the best 200 definitions from Ambrose Bierce's classic The Devil's Dictionary, with more than 500 definitions from the most humorous and stinging entries in Chaz Bufe's The American Heretic's Dictionary. This new edition includes 50 new definitions from Bufe and new biting illustrations by San Francisco artist and filmmaker J. R. Swanson. The Bierce definitions focus on his favorite targets, including religion, jingoism masquerading as patriotism, the "lickspittle" press, the thievery inherent in the American economic system, and the multitude of idiocies and hypocrisies pervading American social and political life. Bufe's definitions share many of the same targets, but also skewer such contemporary plagues as the "right to life" movement, religious fundamentalism, the IRS, and the puritanically "politically correct." Bufe also turns a jaundiced eye on both male and female sexual attitudes, something which Bierce, writing in much more conservative times, was not free to do.

About this title

Review:

The funniest people I know all seem to have a copy of the Ambrose Bierce classic, The Devil's Dictionary, begun in 1881, which is not Satanic, but is certainly one of the most cynical (yet truthful) collections of bubble-popping definitions for many of our most sacred cows. This edition also contains a considerably longer modern successor to Bierce's classic, by Chaz Bufe, written in the same spirit but updated for the 1990s. Highly recommended to anyone who craves the truth behind the pretense.

From the Publisher:

Right-wingers, fundamentalists, and prudes hate this book (because it gores their sacred cows)--and a number of them have written reviews to try to discourage sales. Read the following excerpts from it and judge for yourself.

About this edition

• Publisher: See Sharp Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1884365353
• ISBN 13: 9781884365355
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 160
• Illustrator: Swanson J. R.