Product Details
Indexers and Indexes in Fact and Fiction (Studies in Book and Print Culture)

Indexers and Indexes in Fact and Fiction (Studies in Book and Print Culture)
By Hazel Bell

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Product Description

The index, taken for granted, perhaps considered boring - or not considered at all - is an essential part of a book. Indexers and Indexing takes a wry look at the history, uses and implications of this little-considered element of the book, and offers an anthology of amusing index extracts. Compiled by a professional indexer, it examines the history and development of the index, and highlights the debate and comment that the index has invited over the years. The author examines indexes from earlier centuries: some endearingly quaint; some deliberately humorous; some plain awful; and some which are astonishing in the vehemence of the views they present. Bell also examines the depiction of indexers in fiction - and the picture she finds is not encouraging to the professional indexer - variously portrayed as diffident, domestic drudges or incompetent and fallen pedants. A wonderful book for editors, indexers and bibliophiles.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #1001870 in Books
  • Published on: 2002-02-23
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 160 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Hazel Bell is a freelance indexer, compiler of over 600 published indexes, and was editor of The Indexer, the journal of the Society of Indexers, for 18 years.

Customer Reviews

Unique and appealing5
No bibliophile will want to resist this instructive, entertaining and amusing anthology, which reveals indexes as whimsical (Lewis Carroll), enticing (Pepys), hilarious (Julian Barnes), or playful (Virginia Woolf). Indexers portrayed in fiction are noted to be everything from drunk (in Trollope) to meticulous (Sherlock Holmes) to romantic (in Barbara Pym). The entries are fascinating, the brief history of indexing is engrossing, and A.S.Byatt's foreword is brilliant. A splendid and unique 'must-have' for any book lover.

A Jolly Good Read5
It is not often that a book by an indexer about indexers and indexes can be described as fun. Hazel Bell's meticulously researched book is fun to read. Bell was editor of the British journal, The Indexer, for over 18 years. In this volume she has collected gems -- quotes about indexes, quotes from indexes, indexers that appear in fiction as characters, and much more. And, oh yes! The book includes an index.