The Devil’s Dictionary

Ambrose Bierce spent more than thirty years compiling mock definitions for newspapers and magazines before they were gathered into this famous lexicon, published complete in 1911. The form is simple: take an ordinary word, then define it the way a clear-eyed cynic actually sees it. A corporation, he writes, is an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. Politics, marriage, faith, patriotism, and lawyers all come in for the same treatment, each entry a small joke with a hard truth inside. The book was widely imitated and quoted long after Bierce’s death, and much of its bite still lands because the human failings it names have not gone anywhere. Free to read as a PDF and EPUB edition.