Devil's Dictionary

"e;Politeness, n. The most acceptable hypocrisy."e;In this extraordinary work of scathing satire, Ambrose Bierce provided new humorous definitions of the words that formed the lexicon of contemporary American life.Accumulated over three decades for a series of magazines and newspapers, the entries in The Devil's Dictionary painted a revealing portrait of late 19th-century American life, with all its contradictions and hypocrisies laid bare.Bierce's fantastic wit and incredible gift for irony shine through this true masterpiece of American literature.