Rating: 
Summary: does this really need a review?
Review: This Dictioanry is a real bargain for the price you pay. Pretty much all the words, esoteric or otherwise that you come across in the course of your reading is covered by this very useful tome. The newer edition with the CD-ROM functionality should be the real clincher. Of course comparison the the unabridged OED is unfair for this book, but that would be something else to look at if you have a lot of cash to spare :)
The only problem I have with it is rather minor; External looks if you will; The red cloth bound binding is jarring on the eye; The edges of the book are splashed with fine red droplets of ink (perhaps interntionally?) - But that's a minor hiccup for a book that packs in so much for so little!
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Desk Reference
Review: This dictionary is the best I have owned in many years.
It is comprehensive, detailed, and the font is easy on the eyes--something I cannot say for MANY dictionaries.In this new age of online dictionaries, it is easy to overlook the fact that hardback dictionaries like this one can be so much more detailed and informative for those situations in which you want to get a real feel for a word and not just a quick answer--which makes this dictionary particularly useful for students of literature, history, and the social sciences. As a poli-sci major myself, I, of course, highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK
Review: This is a one stop dictionary. All you need under one cover. I purchase other dictionaries from Oxford, Collins and Cambridge to name a few and this one tops them all by a long shot. For what you are getting you should be paying a lot more. BUY THIS DICTIONARY NOW.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough and well-written, with useful features
Review: This is a very high quality collegiate dictionary. I am a member of a word puzzle organization (puzzlers.org) and this is our standard reference, along with the unabridged version, "Webster's Third New International Dictionary". Many very obscure words show up in puzzles, but it is relatively rare I find I have to go to the unabridged dictionary to look them up. In addition to being thorough (with excellent sections on abbreviations, foreign words and phrases (such as "en plein jour" or "inshallah") it includes compressed but informative etymological data. For example, the entry on "spacious" has this - ME, fr. MF spacieux, fr. L spatiosus, space, room -- more at SPEED (14c)"; in a little over a single line you get the lineage, with a reference to yet more information. You may have to learn some of the abbreviations (Middle English, Middle French, 14th century) but I found them generally intuitive and didn't need to look them up much at all. In addition, there are excellent usage paragraphs scattered throughout. These are of two types. One type compares the usage of different words with very similar meanings. For example, the entry on "satiate" provides a usage paragraph that compares "satiate", "sate", "surfeit", "cloy", "pall", "glut" and "gorge", identifying the precise differences of usage between them. The paragraph is cross-referenced at each of the other six words, so you don't have to just stumble across satiate to find it. The other kind of usage paragraph discusses correctness. A good example is "hopefully", which in its sense "I hope that" is controversial. The dictionary asserts the validity of this controversial use, which is sure to annoy some purists, but it does acknowledge the debate and cite grammatical arguments for its position. The dictionary is available online, and I strongly recommend you take a look at it. There is a CD-ROM for sale too, which is worth getting as it adds some fancy search features, though if you're like me you'll want the paper version to keep by the bed.
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