Customer Reviews

A Loeb Classical Library Reader

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Since Amazon still doesn't have a "Search Inside" option for this book, I am copying its contents below:

Homer (Odyssey), Hesiod (Works and Days), Pindar (Olympian Odes), Sophocles (Antigone), Euripides (Medea), Herodotus (Persian Wars), Thucydides (History of the Peloponnesian War), Aristophanes (Lysistrata), Xenophon (Anabasis), Plato (Phaedo), Aristotle (Poetics), Callimachus (Hymns), Josephus (Jewish War), Plutarch (Brutus), Lucian (Dialogues of the Gods), Pausanias (Description of Greece), Terence (The Brothers), Cicero (On Duties), Caesar (Gallic War), Lucretius (On the Nature of Things), Virgil (Aeneid), Horace (Odes), Livy (History of Rome), Propertius (Elegies), Ovid (Heroines), Manilius (Atronomica), Seneca (Octavia), Pliny (Natural History), Petronius (Satyricon), Pliny the Younger (Letters), Juvenal (Satires), Apuleius (Metamorphoses), Jerome (Letters).

Given that these texts have been drawn from different volumes, the quality of the translations varies. However, at the end of the day, the beauty of the Loeb series lies in the fact that we have access to the original.

I found some of the selections (Josephus, Caesar, Manilius) underwhelming, but that is to be expected. De gustibus non est disputandum, and that is why the Editors seem to have tried to cater to different needs by giving as representative a sample as possible. To make a long story short: this is definitely a good buy.

Of course, the editors were damned if they did and damned if they didn't -- select other passages from the 500 other Loeb volumes. Would I have made a different selection? OF COURSE!

But what do I want to have in my briefcase in case my flight is delayed, the newspapers are depressing and the magazines insipid?

Why this handy anthology! Absolutely a worthy purchase. Where else can you tuck into some choice passages from Cicero, savor Lucretius' account of peace of mind, snack on Aristotle without gagging and get a tremendous belly-laugh from Petronius or Juvenal?

This is a no-brainer and a great gift, too!

This book is a good introduction to the Loeb Classical Library. The book is in greek and latin with the translations in english. The quality is the same like in a normal book from the library. A good book to begginers in the classical world. A invitation to start your collection in the Loeb Classical Library.

This compact and inexpensive book (practically pocket sized) provides an introduction to the riches available from the Loeb Classical Library of the Harvard University Press. It contains selections from 33 writings of poetry, dialogue, philosophical writing, history, descriptive reporting, satire, and fiction. The works included span twelve centuries, from Homer to Saint Jerome. The texts and translations are reproduced as they appear in Loeb volumes (original text on left, translated text on the right page).

Examples of the contents include: Odysseus tricking the Cyclops in order to escape from the giant's cave; Zeus creating the first woman, Pandora, cause of mortals' hardships ever after; the Athenian general Nicias dissuading his countrymen from invading Sicily; Socrates, condemned to die, saying farewell; a description of Herod's fortified palace at Masada; Cicero's thoughts on what we owe our fellow men; Livy's description of the rape of the Sabine women; Manilius on the signs of the zodiac; and Pliny's observation of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE.

There are currently 518 volumes in the Loeb Classical Library. It was launched in 1911 by James Loeb, a Harvard graduate (concentration in Greek and Latin) who founded the series after his business career was cut short due to health issues. The first 20 volumes appeared in 1912, and when Loeb died in 1933, the Loeb Classical Library (at that time having grown to almost 300 volumes) was bequeathed to Harvard University, with funding to establish the Loeb Classical Library Foundation for the purpose of completing the Loeb Classical Library and supporting continued research into the classics. The Harvard University Press was then chosen to oversee the series, and this has continued to the present day, with typesetting, printing, and binding all now done in the United States.

The value of this book is to provide a taste of what the Loeb Classical Library contains, and in so doing whet your appetite for delving further into the riches of the Greek and Latin classics. In my view it does this admirably!

I've always liked the Loeb editions for their original language text on the facing pages...but never wanted to invest due to the high prices of the originals and the spurious archaic translations.

But this little book I don't mind! It offers a great selection that never bores and gives me a chance to practice reading Latin and Greek...that with the price being right, It makes a great gift either for yourself or for a loved one!

This highly portable pocket sized selection of short examples of the treasures from this long established and priceless series of classical literature, The Loeb Classical Library is a unique literary hors-d'oeuvre.

120 pages of english translation as an introduction to a library of several hundred volumes? drop the latin and greek, and triple the length.