The Professor and the Madman is a fascinating piece of historical narrative

non-fiction by Simon Winchester. Written in 1998 but describing events spanning

from the mid nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century - Winchester uses a

non-chronological narrative to propel the events in an intriguing way. This book,

being an historical account, draws from an array of obscure sources in order to

give a clearer picture of the truth, and the author utilizes this method faithfully

and interestingly. This is a different type of narrative non-fiction in that it depends

mostly on historical accounts rather than personal ones; it is therefore a historical

narrative non-fiction novel rather than simply a narrative non-fiction novel. All of

the historical accounts seem very accurate and have been met with little

refutation; this gives credence to the genre but also enforces the crucial

importance of historical accuracy within it. The Professor and the Madman is a

great achievement in historical narrative non-fiction, owing to the author’s

meticulous attention to history and intriguing narrative structure.

The book's non-chronological structure makes reading it more exciting than

it would’ve been if it were chronological. One must imagine Simon Winchester

writing a draft (or at least part of one) chronologically but then becoming so bored

and frustrated that he sought to cover it more adequately. Since the book has

two protagonists this approach would have also hindered their individual stories.

This could be why he spends three pages at the beginning of the book defining
the word "protagonist" and justifying the pluralization of it. At any rate the final

structure of the novel works very well.

The preface is a great example of the way Winchester makes the reader

want to read on. The preface outlines a segment of W.C. Minor (the madman)

and James Murray (the professor)’s first meeting, but this isn’t depicted in its

entirety until about three quarters into the novel. In the preface he sets up an

intriguing scene, which depicts the editor of the OED (Oxford English Dictionary),

James Murray meeting one of the dictionaries chief contributors, W.C. Minor in a

mental institution. At first Murray takes the administrator of the institution to be

Minor and introduces himself, but he is told by the administrator that Minor is

actually a tenant (and one of the longest standing ones at that). This sets up a lot

of the big questions of the book: like how did Minor get to the mental institution

and what kind of disorder does he have which allows him to function so well? As

a result this scene is best placed at the onset because if it had not been there the

book would have seemed much more aimless and pointless. Winchester uses

this method throughout the novel, not in an irritating way, but effectively and

usefully.

The events described in the book took place about one-and-a-half centuries

before it was written. Therefore Simon Winchester could not rely on personal

accounts - the closest he could get would be vague interviews with relatives,
official documents and personal correspondence. The source he draws most

from – it seems – is the case notes on W.C. Minor taken during his stay in the

Broadmoor Insane Asylum. The notes contain many of the references to Minor’s

character made throughout the book. There are many other sources though, like

the correspondence between Minor and Murray, police reports, the main

subject’s diaries and historical accounts. All of these are used seamlessly, and

had I not known the book was written in 1998 I would have imagined it’d been

written in the early 20th century. This way of conveying history so timelessly is

quite an admirable feat and I can hardly comprehend the amount of effort and

talent required in pulling it off.

The book is divergent in structure and this may owe, in part, to the difficulty

of attaining accurate and specific sources on Minor and Murray. The main

narrative of the story is often intercut with lengthy dictionary definitions and notes

on the history of dictionary writing. Though I say that this may be because of the

difficulty of following the main subjects - it is not at all a hindrance. Since the

book is about the construction of a monumental dictionary it is important to have

the context behind the task. This is why Winchester takes breaks from the main

narrative to tell of the time when there where no dictionaries, how the first ones

came about and why the writing of the OED was so important. He starts by

stating the fact that there were no dictionaries in Shakespeare’s time – which

gives context for the need for them. Then he gives a lengthy account of Samuel
Johnson’s composition of one of the first dictionaries ever. Winchester, very

meticulously, uses the evolving definition of the word “Elephant” to provide a

clearer structure for his history of dictionary making. He starts by citing

Shakespeare’s misuse of the word in the lines of Twelfth Night, which read, “In

the south suburbs at the Elephant/ Is best to lodge”. Winchester does this to give

an idea of the historical need for dictionaries. He follows through with the

“elephant” example later on by giving Samuel Johnson’s flawed definition of it

from his own dictionary some one hundred years later. After this, chapter five of

the book begins with the OED’s definition of “elephant” so as to mark the

progress of the evolution of the dictionary in general. This provides cumulative

effect, which would not have been so evident had Winchester not singled out a

main point to his argument.

But Winchesters reference to “elephant” is not just a loose structuring point;

he also uses it in a way, which evokes personal feelings within the reader. For

example on the fourth-last page he refers to it again when writing about the death

of Minor: “[h]e might have been mad, but like Doctor Johnson’s dictionary

elephant , he had been ‘extremely long lifed’”. This evokes a nostalgic sense in

the reader; Winchester knows that he has filled the word with connotations of

ambition, genius and history and he uses it to great effect here. This is an

example of Winchesters great ability to add deeper emotional meaning into

seemingly frivolous historical accounts. This is one of the most admirable traits
that Winchester has and one of the main reasons he is able to make the difficult

task of historical narrative non-fiction work.

The Professor and the Madman reads well despite the challenges of its

form. As it is a historical account the author has to deal with many difficulties in

making it an interesting read. One of the ways he does this is by structuring the

narrative in a way that leaves the reader questioning and wanting more. He does

this by diverging from the main narratives regarding Minor and Murray and giving

context to what is going on with them – not in a way that irritates the reader, but

in a way that makes reading the book more exciting. The way in which

Winchester uses given historical information and then injects deeper emotion into

it is both faithful and effective – especially in his repeated mention of the word

“elephant”. Simon Winchester makes The Professor and the Madman a great

example of historical non-fiction by masterfully utilizing all of the mentioned

methods.
Book Report: The Professor and the Madman

By Brayden Benham

Submitted to: Prof. Stephen Kimber

Dec/05/08
Intro. to Narrative Non-Fiction 3440