There is a new book about to be published that has me curious. It’s Mark Twain’s Autobiography. Only parts of it have been previously published. I was reading about it in The NY Times Magazine of Books. The online article was very interesting but it had me running to my desktop dictionary. Here are the words I had to look up:1. unexpurgated: But in his unexpurgated autobiography, whose first volume is about to be published a century after his death, a very different Twain emerges, more pointedly political and willing to play the role of the angry prophet.
Expurgated means to remove matter thought to be objectionable or unsuitable from a book, so unexpurgated must mean to not remove it.
2. excoriate: In a passage removed by Paine, Twain excoriates “the iniquitous Cuban-Spanish War” . . .
Excoriate means to censure or criticize severely
3. invective: There are a number of passages where he wants to get even, to settle scores with people whom he really despises. He loved invective.” Quote from Justin Kaplan, author of Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography.
Invective is insulting, abusive, or highly critical language.
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unexpurgated…wow, one I know! I feel so smart today!
Love the sound of excoriate..
Here is my wondrous word.
Oh, I’ll have to see what he says – I’m reading a book now on the Cuban-Spanish war, and I think it definitely needs to be excoriated! :–)
Those are all great words! I’m going to read that article because my son’s interested in Mark Twain’s biography too.
Let’s see here — this post gives me 2 new words, a link to a great on-line magazine, and a new book about one of my favorite authoris ever. I feel like I really scored! Thanks for all this information
Those are some serious words lol Not a huge Mark Twain fan. Should have been but I just could never get into the books like everyone said I should.
Invective…I like the way that one sounds. I could see myself using that one