- Paperback - Number of Pages: 640 pages
- Dimensions: 129.54 x 195.58 x 27.94mm - 362.87g
- Publication date: 01 May 1996
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
- Publication City/Country: London, United Kingdom
- Language: English
This is a 1994 update of the Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations. Poets, politicians, novelists, lawyers, comedians, mostly English and American, and all from this century, are quoted. Not necessarily the best known but certainly the best quotes are all here. There is an inevitable problem of sorting wit from topicality: but it is a line that M J Cohen has successfully traversed - there is no Bill Clinton, but then he hasn't said too much to merit inclusion. Reagan is quite extensively quoted, but mostly his gaffes (which skirts the problems of crediting speech writers). And here it wins out over The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations, its most obvious rival for book shelf space. (Kirkus UK)