Customer Reviews

Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a doctoral candidate in classical philology, I strongly urge all serious Greek students to obtain this priceless book - one of the cheapest of the essential shelf of books for the classical scholar. No work comes close. This volume makes Smyth's monumental Greek grammar look childish on the subject of treatment of subordinate clauses in indirect discourse.

If you've gotten this far, then you know Moods and Tenses is a must-have. The question is: should I buy the William H. Allen edition now, or trust to luck in finding one in a used bookstore? The answer is: buy now. Get two. The quality of the printing, paper, and binding is first-rate. At $26, the book is severely underpriced. With the demise of classical education, it might never be this available again.

I bought the "Forgotten Books" edition of Goodwin's Syntax, and what I got was a poor quality reproduction of Goodwin's original text. The print is faded and hard to read, and portions the text are hand underlined by some previous reader. These messy underlines came through in the reproduction. Overall, it looks like a bad Xerox. I would recommend finding another version of this text.

This is an excellent re-production of W.W.Goodwin's

publication of 1889. It still has the original examples in small type but the section introductions are in larger print and certainly easier to read. Paperback form is a disadvantage for such a reference book,

no doubt to keep the price down for students.

William W. Goodwin's Nineteenth Century work is a welcome find and an invaluable adjunct to other Greek language explanatory texts; and, of course, the Greek verb -especially ancient forms- needs all the light of scholarship anyone can give, perhaps even now.

I love one of his stated missions (in his 1865 preface)'to treat Greek syntax not only metaphysically as so many scholars do, but (also) by the light of common sense.' This is important beyond simplicity.

I find it a welcome background and an important precursor to later texts that almost always give it referral credit.