Customer Reviews

A Greek Prose Reading Course for Post-beginners: Forensic Oratory: Lysias: on the Murder of Eratosthenes

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I would like to first qualify my review by saying that I have not yet finished the book: I've read through four-fifths of it and am basing my criticism on that experience. The remaining twenty percent could easily turn out to be uninspired bushwa, but given what I've encountered to this point that seems unlikely.

This book is a phenomenal resource for those who are learning Ancient Greek on their own, primarily because of its structure (which goes unmentioned in the product description). The actual Greek text takes up only six of the sixty-four pages in this volume and rest is split into introductory material and Aids for Comprehension. Lysias's speech is cut into fifty sections and concise grammatical notes follow based on those divisions, meaning that they are easy to follow and make a convenient reference. Each group of five or so sections is also preceded by a vocabulary list that details the most important terms that will be encountered in the associated reading. Another goodie is the verb list at the back, which breaks down EVERY verb found in the orginal text with a complete identification (except for the prefect and pluperfect forms, which are treated in the Morphology and Syntax section that precedes the notes). For the "Post-Beginner" reader, this is a godsend.

And yet do I find space to complain? Mais oui! The binding on the book is so terrible that the pages might have well have been nailed together. It will no lie flat, it will not remain open, and the covers bend easily. Futhermore, there is almost no blank space left on the pages of the Greek text for note-taking, which I find frustrating. And yet these are but the tiniest flies in the whipped-cream of an otherwise ideal text.

There are three others books in this series (A Greek Prose Reading Course for Post-beginners: Philosophy: Plato: Crito, Greek Prose Reading Course for Post Beginners 3: Political Oratory: Demosthenes, and A Greek Prose Reading Course for Post-beginners 4: Historiography: Thucydides: Events at Pylos and Sphacteria) and based on my experiences with this book I have high expectations. With no instruction or resources other than what I could get together on my own, this little volume allowed me for the first time to read fifth-century BC Greek in the original. I look forward to further reading with great anticipation.