Summary
Read an excerpt and download The Devils Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce for iPhone, iPad, Android, and Kindle in PDF and all popular eBook reader formats (AZW3, EPUB, MOBI).
"The Devil's Dictionary" is a collection of satirical definitions written by Ambrose Bierce. The book was first published in 1890 and has since become one of Bierce's most famous works.
In the dictionary, Bierce defines common words and phrases in a humorous and ironic way that often pokes fun at societal norms and values. For example, he defines "happiness" as "the state of being content with what you think you want," and "love" as "a temporary obsession."
Bierce also includes definitions for more obscure words and phrases, such as "cynicism" (which he defines as "the mental attitude which enables one to regard the world with skepticism") and "pessimism" (which he defines as "the doctrine that nothing is worth doing").
Overall, "The Devil's Dictionary" is a humorous and thought-provoking work that challenges readers to question their assumptions about the world around them.
Excerpt
A
ABASEMENT, n. A decent and customary mental attitude in the presence of wealth or power. Peculiarly appropriate in an employee when addressing an employer.
ABATIS, n. Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outside from molesting the rubbish inside.
ABDICATION, n. An act whereby a sovereign attests his sense of the high temperature of the throne.
Poor Isabella's Dead, whose abdication Set all tongues wagging in the Spanish nation. For that performance 'twere unfair to scold her: She wisely left a throne too hot to hold her. To History she'll be no royal riddle— Merely a plain parched pea that jumped the griddle.
G.J.
ABDOMEN, n. The temple of the god Stomach, in whose worship, with sacrificial rights, all true men engage. From women this ancient faith commands but a stammering assent. They sometimes minister at the altar in a half-hearted and ineffective way, but true reverence for the one deity that men really adore they know not. If woman had a free hand in the world's marketing the race would become graminivorous.
ABILITY, n. The natural equipment to accomplish some small part of the meaner ambitions distinguishing able men from dead ones. In the last analysis ability is commonly found to consist mainly in a high degree of solemnity. Perhaps, however, this impressive quality is rightly appraised; it is no easy task to be solemn.
ABNORMAL, adj. Not conforming to standard. In matters of thought and conduct, to be independent is to be abnormal, to be abnormal is to be detested. Wherefore the lexicographer adviseth a striving toward the straiter [sic] resemblance of the Average Man than he hath to himself. Whoso attaineth thereto shall have peace, the prospect of death and the hope of Hell.