French and English Pronouncing Dictionary, Newly Composed From the French Dictionaries of the French Academy, Laveaux, Boiste, Bescherelle, Landais, Etc. and From the English Dictionaries of Johnson, Webster, Worcester, Richardson, Etc. ..

Alexander Spiers, a professor of English at the Royal College of Paris, first compiled this comprehensive dictionary in the mid-19th century to address the growing need for a rigorous, bilingual reference work that synthesized the best lexicographical resources of both cultures. By drawing explicitly from authoritative French sources such as the French Academy and Bescherelle, as well as English giants like Johnson and Webster, Spiers intended to capture the nuance and phonetic accuracy required for academic and diplomatic exchange during a period of intense cultural and linguistic cross-pollination between Britain and France.

The dictionary was designed with a focus on pronunciation, a feature that set it apart from smaller pocket glossaries of the era. It was met with significant praise in scholarly circles for its structural clarity and the meticulous effort taken to align English orthography with contemporary French equivalents. The work remained a foundational text in linguistics libraries for decades, eventually seeing numerous reprints and editions that cemented Spiers's reputation as a primary bridge between the two languages in the Victorian age.