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Five years old and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends much of her childhood hanging around her father and his team of lexicographers who are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Hiding under a table, she rescues a forgotten word - Bondmaid - from the floor, stashing it away in an old case. As Esme gets older, she begins to collect other words which have been misplaced, neglected or discarded by the men, and soon her own dictionary begins to grow: The Dictionary of Lost Words, which will help to teach her about how women''s stories and words are so often discarded and unrecorded by history. Taking place in a time when the women''s suffrage movement was blossoming, this book reveals the female narrative hidden behind a history which was written by men. The novel revels in language and the power of words, but also explores the many ways in which words can fall short of reality, and how they can be harmfully turned against those they describe. This is a novel filled with engaging characters in a rich historical setting, and is endlessly rewarding and moving for anyone who loves books or language.

En 1901, le mot bonne-à-tout-faire est absent du premier dictionnaire d'Oxford. Ce roman est l'histoire de celle qui l'a volé. Esme a grandi entourée de mots, dans le Scriptorium où son père, lexicographe, rassemble des définitions pour constituer le premier dictionnaire d'Oxford. Mais le jour où elle découvre la fiche égarée de bonne-à-tout-faire, la petite fille comprend que tous les mots ne sont pas égaux. Le plus souvent, les termes triviaux qui ont trait aux femmes et à leur vie quotidienne sont écartés par son père et ses collègues. Elle décide alors de sauver les paroles de ces femmes. Tout en traçant sa voie dans une société encore très étriquée, Esme commence à constituer son propre dictionnaire. Celui des mots oubliés. " Captivant, poignant et merveilleusement écrit. " Library Journal