Penguin Modern Classics: The Enlarged Devil’s Dictionary

With 851 Newly Discovered Words and Definitions.

– ‘History, n. an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
– Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all two.
– Self-Esteem, n. An erroneous appraisement.’

‘The Devil’s Dictionary’, begun as a weekly column when Bierce was a journalist, and developed into a full-scale satire, is, as he says, a punishment for rascals. Bierce became known as the “laughing devil” of the San Francisco news media. Here is another notorious collection of barbed definitions.