"A World of Words" offers a new look at the degree to which language itself is a topic of Poe's texts. Stressing the ways his fiction reflects on the nature of its own signifying practices, Williams sheds new light on such issues as Poe's characterization of the relationship between author and reader as a struggle for authority, on his awareness of the displacement of an "authorial writing self"; by a "self as it is written"; and on his debunking of the redemptive properties of the romantic symbol.
From amusia to xerophagy, from the ephemeral to the vituperative, The Word Lover's Delight is chockablock with words that are not only fascinating and unusual but that you can use in your everyday speech--to jaw-dropping effect. With a wide range of words, from the moderately difficult to the somewhat ostentatious, The Word Lover's Delight gives each word a phonetic pronunciation, a memorable example of its use in speech, and an easy-to-understand definition.
Susan Ericksen's portraits of the characters are vivid, passionate, and at the same time tranquil which fit the style of the novel perfectly. The original files consist of 1580 mp3s, one of each lasts around half a miniute. I spent some time to make them merge into chapters, but a minor error occured which I couldn't explain: several words were lost at the end of chapter 35. The last sentence reads: I rose from the thanksgiving-took a resolve-and lay down, unscared, enlightened-eager but for the daylight. The mp3 ends at the words of "lay down". So I'd like to make an apology beforehand.
• A CD with a reading of the adapted story • Helpful notes on characters • Cultural and historical notes relevant to the plot • A glossary of the more difficult words
