If we could only put aside our civil pose and say what we really thought, the world would be a lot like the one alluded to in The Unabridged Devils Dictionary. There, a bore is “a person who talks when you wish him to listen,” and happiness is “an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.” This is the most comprehensive, authoritative edition ever of Ambrose Bierces satiric masterpiece. It renders obsolete all other versions that have appeared in the books ninety-year history.

A virtual onslaught of acerbic, confrontational wordplay, The Unabridged Devils Dictionary offers some 1,600 wickedly clever definitions to the vocabulary of everyday life. Little is sacred and few are safe, for Bierce targets just about any pursuit, from matrimony to immortality, that allows our willful failings and excesses to shine forth.