Lempriere’s Dictionary

Lempriere’s Dictionary, an antiquarian historical fiction novel, imagines the fictional involvement of real-life English lexicographer John Lempriere in various contemporaneous 17th century events. The opening section describing Lempriere’s arrival into a bustling London is exhilarating — Lawrence Norfolk captures the sights and sounds of the city in rich detail — but the remaining plot follows a somewhat predictable “secret history” formula, in which the brilliant protagonist spots patterns that his dim-witted peers miss.