Ambrose Bierce's "The Devil's Dictionary" is a satirical lexicon offering cynical and humorous redefinitions of common English words. It is notable for its dark wit and enduring commentary on human nature and societal conventions.
Sources for Ambrose Bierce — The Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce — The Devil's Dictionary in Satire
Held in the Satire chamber of the Babel Nexus Index.
- Anonymous (Egypt) — The Satire of the Trades (The Instruction of Kheti) (c. 1900 BCE)
- Aristophanes — The Birds (c. 414 BCE)
- Aristophanes — The Clouds (c. 423 BCE)
- Lucian of Samosata — A True History (Verae Historiae) (c. 175 CE)
- Horace — Satires, Epistles, and the Art of Poetry (c. 35 BCE)
- François Rabelais — Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)
- Desiderius Erasmus — The Praise of Folly (1511)
- Thomas More — Utopia (1516)
- Jonathan Swift — Gulliver's Travels (1726)
- Voltaire — Candide, or Optimism (1759)
- Mark Twain — A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889)
- Oscar Wilde — The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)