Abstract

Wheeler's Dictionary of the Noted Names of Fictions

The article focuses on "An Explanatory and Pronouncing Dictionary of the Noted Names of Fiction," by William A. Wheeler. The character and story of Henry VIII, may undergo the most surprising metamorphoses, but the Blue Beard of the nursery tale is quite beyond the reach of disturbing critics. Much more is it true that, in the realm of fiction, so-called, a thing of beauty is, literally, a joy for ever. Wheeler's is the very first attempt at a dictionary of fiction. The vocabulary, of the same general description, included in the appendix to the late edition of "Webster's Dictionary," is the basis of this volume. This contains, however, nearly seventeen hundred new articles, and more than a thousand new and apt citations.