Customer Reviews

The Essential Plato

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I bought this book mainly because I saw that it had an introduction by Alain de Botton, author of THE CONSOLATIONS OF PHILOSOPHY, and because I've been wanting to become more familiar with the works of Plato. First of all, the "Introduction," only six pages long, should have been called a "Foreword." It was clearly something de Botton had written on another occasion or without reference to the work it was going to be attached to. While it is interesting in its own right, it's the sort of thing a person could read very easily while standing in the aisle of a bookstore.

THE ESSENTIAL PLATO is essentially a repackaging of a public domain work (The Quality Paperback Book Club seems to do a lot of this sort of thing). In fairness, it presents hefty chunks of Plato's works (The Republic and The Trial and Death of Socrates in full, plus selections from sixteen other works). The translation is by Benjamin Jowett, first published in 1871. According to the Oxford Companion to English Literature this was a popular translation in its day, though one that was criticized by scholars. It's surprisingly modern and very readable. De Botton's introduction is followed by short introductions on Plato's Life, Writings, and Philosophy. They are uncredited, but I suspect they were authored either by Jowett or by the editorial staff of the original publisher. Each work has an extensive introduction of its own (also uncredited). While the introductions seem thorough and the information they give plausible, I kept finding myself wondering if they didn't represent "old scholarship." There are no annotations, cross-references, or any other helps.

Not a rip-off exactly, but I'm sure I'm going to have to look elsewhere for definitive editions of Plato's works.

The chapter titles alone are worth the price of this book. I had the honor of attending one of Alain de Botton's readings in London and he's a writer with an abiding talent as well as a passionate and strong sense of humor. As for The Essential Plato, it merits every bit of praise it has received in the media, and then some. Alain de Botton -- much like he'd done with How Proust Can Change Your Life -- illustrates a witty, insightful and readable introduction to Plato. Without a doubt, it is a great gateway to Plato's work. Alain de Botton hasn't disappointed me. I am about to track down the remaining books he's written so that I can sustain this feeling of having discovered a memorable author.

Yes the translation is public domain but this volume is good for people who like to have a printed version. Also, it a great collection of Plato's dialogues so unless you want an edition with the complete dialogues, this is one of the best bets for an anthology.

The translation itself is over 100 years old and is at times archaic. The lack of speech punctuation for the dialogue eg in the Republic is perplexing. Still, it reads fairly well and presents a unified take on Plato. Whether that take is accurate or not is another story.

The major works presented are the Republic and the trial and death of Socrates (Meno, Euthyphro, Aplogy, Symposium etc) in their entirety and selections from dialogues such as Laches, Critias, Sophist. The volume ends with a selection from each of the 12 books of the Laws. For those looking for contextualisation, there's a detailed introduction for each dialogue - a plus if you want an edition that's not too cluttered by foot/endnotes but still want something more than just the text.

Overall, a pretty good edition - if you're not a serious Plato fan.

This volume is not of the best quality construction but it has a ton of Plato for a very reasonable price. Though this book is not made to last years of usage it is a great source material for Plato's works translated by an able scholar.

Good buy!

Plato is classic. What more is there to say? And it's about time there was a single, inexpensive collection of his work like this. This is a must have volume for anyone interested in philosphy.