An Exaltation of Larks: The Ultimate Edition

Exactly as described.

I had been a very happy owner of the 1977 Edition: An is Exaltation of Larks or, The Venereal Game. It was much shorter and carried less text. This the updated, third edition seems a step down. Brevity, in this case being the soul of wit. This edition has more substance. It appears with a more complete history of the collection of collections. There is what reads like a fair effort at providing etymologies for many of the terms. I found the text cluttered and the insistence on using script fonts hard to read.Lists in the first half contained thrown together items with little or no relation to one another. The last half was better organized but there seemed to be little care in selecting the best of offered examples. Some were too obvious and the obscure may or may not rate explanations.++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Historically, terms of venery were mostly hunting terms. Pride of Lions, Murder of Crows, Herd of Hinds and etc. The term venery common root as venereal meaning to seek or desire , to lust after or for this book: to hunt. The earliest collection of list of collectives; Lipton gives as appearing in the 1300's in Norman French. He will offer as his inspiration the List of St Albanse written about 150 years later. It is also Lipton's opinion that this book was written by Dame Juliana and therefore the more interesting as coming from a time when few women could write and covering hunting, not a traditional 15th century center of female activity.Once Lipton gets past his history and a few stories about getting to see original copies of some of these books, he has divided the actual text into sections moving from the traditional to the modern. We are not given any complete list for nay of the early editions. Very old and not so old collectives may be found consecutively. While he will make some effort to identify which old source originated which terms, in the modern lists there are a few general statements about who may have offered items under which topic, but nothing in the way of footnotes.For me the consistently best part of this edition are the illustrations. Whimsical, detailed and entertaining, they best exemplify the humor and satiric aptness that is and was always a part of the Terms of Venery.Exaltation of Larks is not meant as a scholarly book, and it is not scholarly. It is meant to be entertaining and it is , mostly , almost. It is also cluttered, poorly organized, documented and rarely as funny as it might have been. The shorter earlier edition was a more entertaining read. This one is not a bad read, just not much of an entertaining read.

The kind of book to keep handy so you can pick it up up for a few minutes of mental play and relaxation. A thoroughly delightful book! (This is a particularly lovely edition if you can find one, but any edition is a happy and worthy addition to a bookshelf.)

I have an early edition I couldn't find. this Ultimate edition is just so much fun. And so very handy!

Probably most useful in crossword puzzles and trivial pursuit, collective nouns are indeed curious. In an article many years ago in the Harvard Weekly magazine the financial editor, whose name I forget, wrote a piece on collective nouns for whose use I have been an advocate ever since. Though most find it strange and perhaps a bit odd to say the least, it makes the heritage of this rich and expressive language a bit more obvious. It is also fun when such correct usages are encountered in fiction or non-fiction just as a matter of course. It is also fun when playing games. I have for years told graduate students of mine that they could have the rest of the day off if they could tell me what a group of wildebeest was called. I have yet to have any leave early, nor likely to care in the least for that matter.When I retired a group of my students gave me this book.It appears to be quite correct, but not the only one on the subject.BTW my Oxford Dictionary of the English language app on my iPhone includes collective nouns as appendix 12. Is that not curious?

I’ve had a copy of this book for decades — love it! ; bought this copy as a gift for a fellow lover of words. It is both a fun and fascinating collection of actual terms for groupings of things (for example: a gaggle of geese, a school of fish), and then some very clever/inventive made-up terms. So enjoyable!

Great book but poorly printed-page numbers cut off & missing pages

I'm the odd man out here: most of the other reviewers are very enthusiastic about this book. It is quite readable and entertaining, but I have one huge quarrel with it: it is nearly impossible to tell whether the "collective noun" used in a phrase is an actual, proper usage ("A murder of crows") or a fanciful invention ("A click of photographers"). This is a serious problem if you are as devoted to the English language as I am. I want the facts, Mr. Lipton, not made up fantasies, however amusing or even apt. Most of the entries seem to be an invention ("An ingratitude of children") although it is hard to tell, especially as invented terms are tossed in with long-standing, honest ones."Collective nouns" are a peculiar aspect of English, and have an intriguing analogue in Japanese, where even the most common of nouns must have a special term appropriate to them when being counted or numbered, e.g. "Ippun no maguro no hand-roll," a cylinder of tuna hand-roll. English is haphazard about this oddity, but Japanese is deadly serious, and if you cannot use the proper counting-term, your ignorance is immediately displayed for all to hear.

An excellent listing of collective nouns but a very dull presentation. There are far more colourful books on the market which list these charming words in a far more attractive manner.

Interesting and great fun thinking up one's own words to add tithe collection, but would have preferred the English edition.

This is a classic and should be on the bookshelf of every user of the English language for a living (teachers, writers, journalists, etc.) just next to your dictionary and thesaurus.

An unbelievable compilation of extraordinary words and terms - most of which I had never known. Very interestingby a very interesting man. Will miss his TV specials about the theatre

fascinating book - if you enjoy playing with words you'll love it. I have always found collective nouns evocative so this book is a font of knowledge for me.