Rating: 
Summary: Much like reading a dictionary.
Review: Lacked creativity. Did not hold my attention. This story, and the exhaustive research behind it, could have produced a charming short story.
Rating: 
Summary: This is not an easy read, but worth sticking it out.
Review: This book promised more than it delivered. The story is interesting, but I would have liked to know more about all the people involved. Winchester often gets off the beaten path leaving the story to delve into all manner of topics and word definitions. In other words, he leaves the people behind to explore language and words. While this is not surprising, it makes the book slow and difficult reading...although worth the struggle.
Rating:
Summary: Needs photographs, but a thrilling tale.
Review: My first contact with this fascinating story came last fall when I heard Mr. Winchester interviewed about it on NPR. His rendition of the tale was so compelling that I immediately ran out to purchase the book. The tale as recounted in the book is somewhat less thrilling than his description of the story on the radio, however. While still an exciting read, there are a number of places in the book in which he inserts excurses into other related topics which I think interrupted the flow of the story he was trying to tell. But perhaps this is more the fault of poor editing. The story remains incredibly fascinating and profoundly moving. The book would be immeasurably improved by the addition of photographs. The sole photograph in the book is on the cover, and is not even identified. I assume that the person in the photograph is Minor, but Winchester makes the point that Minor and Murray looked remarkably alike. A subsequent edition of the book should include all of the photographs of the two men which Winchester describes in the book (but does not show us) along with photographs of Broadmoor, Oxford, New Haven, London, the burial sites of the men, etc. In spite of these shortcomings, I do recommend this ultimately exciting and tragic tale.
Rating: 
Summary: It was a dark and windy night. . .
Review: I found the author's dramatic telling of the story quite annoying and, ultimately, distracting. Winchester describes in some detail the contents of a number of photographs but the book does not reproduce the photographs themselves.While I find the storytelling and the book's presentation flawed I cannot, however, fault the book's production. The typescript in my edition, which is entitled The Surgeon of Crowthorne, is jewel-like in its precision and is entirely appropriate to the characters and subject matter. My preference would be to suspend the star rating for this book. Each reader needs to make a personal assessment of the book. I am not sorry I read The Professor and the Madman.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and well written.
Review: Written with such eloquent style - didn't want it to end. Absoultely the most interesting book I've read in quite some time.
Rating:
Summary: Another side to madness
Review: As others have said, this is an intriguing story told in a disjointed way. We constantly bounce from Minor's sad condition to that of the main editor and their friendship. I never saw much about their relationship to make me believe they really knew each other. More frustrating was the author's writing style, which reminded me of reading a dictionary. In addition I have never seen so many colons (:) used in one book. He uses the passive voice to a very large and distracting degree. The story is interesting but I am surprised that the book is such a big bestseller.
Rating: 
Summary: fascinating look at the history of English dictionaries
Review: Simon Winchester takes a seemingly boring subject, the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and ends up with an entertaining tale of the origins of words and their meanings. Interspersed in his story are highly entertaining vignettes of murder, war and madness. Good reading.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: Upon randomly chosing this book, I became engrossed in learning more about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. I am not one for a history lesson; however, the interesting true-life story that surrounds its creation kept me reading. I feel that I walked away satisfied after reading a wonderful story and also a little more knowledgeable. Wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting story; needs better writer
Review: This is a very interesting story, and is certainly worth the time it will take to read it. There are many good things about the book, but in the hands of a better writer, or with the oversight of a better editor, the many grammatical infelicities. It is certainly possible to overlook one or two in any book, but they crop up again and again here. --There is an annoying tendency to attempt to invest events and details with a ponderous, cliffhanger, "you must read on" quality that the actual story simply cannot sustain. When the author actually describes events or connections that he earlier suggested were so portentous and full of implications, they do not live up to their billing. The author seems unconvinced that the story itself contains sufficient drama. --His speculations and questions on psychiatry frequently seem silly and uninformed. --There is no reason for Winchester's unwarranted and pointless speculation about the possible extent of the relationship between Minor and the widow of his victim. Winchester himself acknowledges that "no suggestion exists" that what he speculates about has any basis in fact. Why include it? In short, the author's ability does not seem to be quite up to the style of writing he has chosen to adopt. This is unfortunate, because the story itself is fascinating, and will be worthwhile reading for anyone interested in lexicography, the English language, Victorian England, or just an entertaining read
Rating:
Summary: A non-fiction story about scholarship, murder and insanity.
Review: "The Professor and the Madman" is an authoritative account of an incredible project -- the massive, decades-long effort to produce the first historical dictionary of the English language, the OED -- and the friendship between the OED's main editor and one of the dictionary's largest scholarly contributors. The latter happened to be a criminally insane American incarcerated for a senseless murder in a British mental institute. The book's writer employs the same precise language and deliberative method to throw light on lexicography as well as on murder and insanity. The result is a book that's as compelling as a thriller while as the same time as accurate as you'd expect an historical, non-fiction work or art to be. It's an exciting yet thoughtful read, totally enjoyable.
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