This is the first abridged edition of the legendary reference work, "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", compiled by Dr Brewer in 1870, which has since gone through many editions and sold millions of copies.

It has enjoyed great popularity ever since its first publication, and is a veritable treasure-trove of interesting pieces of information - some snippets, some larger articles, some extended lists - always fascinating and charming, and frequently amusingly idiosyncratic.

It contains over 15,000 entries which give the meaning and origin of words, phrases, proper names, figures in mythology and history, and terms in religion, magic, philosophy, literature, geography, history, and the sciences.

This is an extraordinary miscellany of knowledge, including lists of traditional animal calls, patron saints, wedding anniversaries, heraldic terms, how to play nine men's morris, and much more.

As the Editor says in her Introduction, it is "a unique and fascinating collection of information invaluable to anyone who reads or writes".