Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Latin Grammar, But Not For the Faint of Heart, May 13, 1997
By A Customer
Of the several Latin grammars I have used (or tried to use), Intensive Latin clearly ranks as my favorite. The book is very thorough but incredibly concise, so much that you might miss some of the details the first time through. As a consolation, however, the book has an excellent index system, such that even each vocabulary entry has an associated chapter number.
The contents are arranged fairly logically, although this might not seem apparent to the newcomer. Each chapter (or "unit") succinctly presents several concepts, and ends with a vocabulary list and extensive drills, exercises, and readings. Interspersed among the units are multi-unit reviews that provide self-exercises and generally help the reader better assimilate the information contained in the previous units. The book concludes with an appendix summarizing all the grammar concepts, two vocabulary lists (Latin-English and English-Latin), and an index.
Having used the book in a college course, I did not note any errors in the book's content.
The book clearly focuses on "classical Latin", as indicated by the vocabulary lists and reading selections. However, one studying this book will be more than sufficiently prepared to tackle reading Medieval Latin sources.
Corroborating the statements of a fellow reviewer, I found that the binding really is poor. Anyone using the book seriously will have to glue, tape, or otherwise rectify the situation to keep all the pages in one spot and in the proper order. This book is completely undeserving of such a substandard edifice!
In sum, I highly recommend Intensive Latin to the serious student. Less eager individuals might find themselves swept away by the rapidity of presentation.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Be sure to do your homework when reading reviews, September 5, 2001
This is a fine Latin text for the mature or adult student who is able and willing to learn and to study Latin as more than a hobby. I must add for the consumer's sake that a previous review is very misleading. "Bennett's New Latin Grammar," suggested as an alternative, is not a textbook, but a reference grammar best suited for beginning to intermediate Latin students (more advanced grammars being "Allen & Greenough" and "Hale & Buck"). Wheelock is a fine alternative to "Latin: An Intensive Course," and is somewhat easier to follow, but either book will suit a mature individual. I highly recommend using in addition a good mid-level dictionary (Chambers-Murray being the best for size, scope, and price) as well as a good beginning reference grammar (Bennett being the most readily available, and probably the easiest to use--but you'll want to upgrade later).
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Latin? Quickly? You can't beat this . . ., May 11, 2003
I have now completed my fourth reading of this very excellent work by Moreland and Fleischer. While it may be true as one reviewer states that many of the sentences in this book do not resemble "real" Latin by "real" authors, readers should remember that these sentences are exercises -- not passages. Their purpose is to present puzzles whose solutions will leave a strong impression upon those students who continue to the end of the book where "real Latin" does indeed occur: Caesar, Petronius, Cicero, Martial, and others are represented in brief passages.But forget about the passages. This book shines in its ability to communicate grammatical principles clearly, in a logical order, with little wasted space. Having completed its eighteen units, students will be able to jump easily into Livy or Pliny and thence into the wider corpus. I learned Latin from this book. I now use it as a teaching text for my independent study kids (high school). The book can be completed in about three semesters, exposing students to the entire grammar (and some reading experience) early enough to have them reading Ovid and Vergil while their peers are still struggling with semi-deponent verbs and the ablative absolute. Forget Wheelock and buy this book. By the time the binding falls apart (and it will) you'll be well on your way to great grammatical skills. These rapidly developed skills will come at the expense of the wider vocabulary encountered in other texts, but the memorization of vocabulary is relatively cheap and easy work.
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