author
Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
1810–1897
Best known for the endlessly browseable Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, this Victorian writer turned curiosity and scholarship into books that helped ordinary readers make sense of language, history, and everyday mysteries. His work mixed reference, storytelling, and explanation in a way that still feels inviting today.
5 Audiobooks
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 3 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar
by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
About the author
Ordained as an Anglican clergyman and educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer built his reputation as a writer of popular reference books rather than as a parish figure. He had a gift for taking big subjects and making them approachable, especially for readers outside the university world.
His best-known book, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, first appeared in the 19th century and became a lasting classic. He also wrote A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar and The Reader's Handbook, books that show the same instinct for gathering useful facts, literary allusions, and odd bits of knowledge into clear, readable form.
What makes his work memorable is its tone: learned, curious, and meant for general readers. Long after his death in 1897, his name remained attached to one of the English-speaking world's most recognizable reference books, a sign of how successfully he turned wide reading into something lively and practical.