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tracey_stewart's review
4.0
It's funny - my main experience with the cant explored in this book is through Lyndsay Faye's marvelous Timothy Wilde trilogy, set in New York. It is there I've heard (because I listened to the audiobooks) this cant in all its glory, not in books set in England.
There are some great stories in here about the slang people have come up with for various things – but now and then I would have loved another paragraph, or even another sentence, about the origins of terms (or even just "we don't know why"). Example: the nine of diamonds in cards is known as "Curse of Scotland", and the four of clubs as "Wibling’s Witch". These are terrific … but there have to be stories behind them. (For anyone else who's curious: Wibling's Witch; The Curse of Scotland. They are good stories.)
That being said, there is a lot of great stuff in here. I love "Vincent" as short for "innocent victim", and the fact that a shark was also known as a "Sea Lawyer". However, the author states "While the speed at which language changed did not compare to the modern era of mass communication and the Internet, nevertheless it is disingenuous to assume, as I have done, that thieves’ cant at the beginning of the period is the same as it is at the end", and so I think this is far more useful as entertainment than as a reference work for one's own period novel.
I received this book from a LibraryThing Member Giveaway in exchange for a review - thank you!
There are some great stories in here about the slang people have come up with for various things – but now and then I would have loved another paragraph, or even another sentence, about the origins of terms (or even just "we don't know why"). Example: the nine of diamonds in cards is known as "Curse of Scotland", and the four of clubs as "Wibling’s Witch". These are terrific … but there have to be stories behind them. (For anyone else who's curious: Wibling's Witch; The Curse of Scotland. They are good stories.)
That being said, there is a lot of great stuff in here. I love "Vincent" as short for "innocent victim", and the fact that a shark was also known as a "Sea Lawyer". However, the author states "While the speed at which language changed did not compare to the modern era of mass communication and the Internet, nevertheless it is disingenuous to assume, as I have done, that thieves’ cant at the beginning of the period is the same as it is at the end", and so I think this is far more useful as entertainment than as a reference work for one's own period novel.
I received this book from a LibraryThing Member Giveaway in exchange for a review - thank you!
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