CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.

Written over three decades as a series of instalments for magazines and newspapers, The Devil’s Dictionary is a charmingly eccentric satirical dictionary that tackles all aspects of life with caustic humour and cutting observation. Few are safe as Bierce targets everything from politics (‘A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage’), marriage (‘A household consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two’) and religion (‘A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable’) to lawyers (‘One skilled in circumvention of the law’). This audiobook edition contains over 1,000 entries, combining the complete first edition published in 1911 with definitions attributed to Bierce’s earlier ‘Demon’s Dictionary’ column.