Everyman's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. Revised from Peter
Roget by D. C. Browning. (Dent. 12s. 6d.)
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Completely revised, enlarged and reset. (Cassell. 25s.)
A SOUND work of reference can never be superseded. Roget, after a hundred years of life, remains indispensable, if not to the imaginative writer, at least to his more pedestrian brother, at a loss for a word; and Brewer remains the best of good com- panions to the reader who is not prepared to let every half-obscure reference pass him by, to the man who insists on knowing who Janus was (or is), the connection of a Jerusalem artichoke with the Holy Land, or the origin of a public-house name. It is a book that one picks up for a purpose—and forgets one's purpose as one turns from one entry to another. Roget, however, is a more serious aid to literacy. Without it the writer is always left with the suspicion that there is a far better word lurking at the back of his mind than the one he is about to use; without it the translator fears he may miss the precise shade of meaning that will best convey the force of a foreign phrase. Both books are reproduced on their old plan. Roget now includes many technical terms, quite a few Americanisms and a bit of Scots, which were missing from earlier editions; Brewer has added a selection from the jargon of two world wars, of the games- field, the air-field and the psycho-analysts' consulting room. Both are generous in their ration of novelties, and sparing in their omissions of the obsolete but
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