The Cynic's Dictionary

The Cynic's Dictionary

by Aubrey Dillon - Malone (Author)

Synopsis

This is an acerbic collection of alternative definitions that aim to set the record straight; epigrammatic cynicism from some of the greatest wits - Oscar Wilde, H.L. Mencken, Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw and modern-day practitioners including P.J. O'Rourke, Madonna and Woody Allen. H.L. Mencken defined a cynic as "someone who, when he smells flowers, looks for a coffin". But more truly, a cynic is a disillusioned idealist, and his scathing wit a way of coping with the great divide between how things ought to be and how they actually are. The quotations on show range from the sublimely subversive to the downright idiotic, and make ripostes with which to deflate pretentious windbags or infect the earnest and insulated with a jaundiced view of the world.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Edition: New
Publisher: Prion Books Ltd
Published: 17 Aug 1999

ISBN 10: 1853753564
ISBN 13: 9781853753565