Plutarch: Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans (Modern Library Series, Vol. 1) (Hardcover)

~ Plutarch (Author), Arthur Hugh Clough (Editor), John Dryden (Translator) "When AEthra was delivered of a son, some say that he was immediately named Thesus, from the tokens which his father had put under the..." (more)
Key Phrases: ten furlongs, chosen consul, hundred galleys, Fabius Maximus, Scipio Africanus, Caius Marius (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A Bible for heroes."


From the Trade Paperback edition. -- Review

Review

"A Bible for heroes."


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (September 5, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679600086
• ISBN-13: 978-0679600084
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #311,018 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for Western culture, March 13, 2001

By	Don Steiny (Santa Cruz, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

These writings are 100% essential to have as a basis for understanding Western civilization. The description of Sparta here is the benchmark. Understanding the modern issues of culture and development can be made much richer by reading the laws of Solon (who laid down the groundwork for Democracy) and Lycurgus (Sparta - the ultimate egalitarian state) you can see the seeds of a dichotomy that has lived to this day.

This two volume set contains the lives of many of the people that you hear about again and again. If you plan to study the classics and read Plato, the Histories or other of the great books, these books are a perfect companion. Instead of reading them straight through, you can read about people as you come across them.

With much soul searching I gave the books 4 stars instead of 5. The reason for this is that the translations are challenging. They are not terrible and they are better than other tranlations I have seen, but they have endless sentences and word choices that are not common in modern American English. If you are into personal growth, this may not be a bad thing, because you can look up the words and expand your vocabulary, but it does make it somewhat more slow going than it could be.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plutarch enlightens as well as informs., June 25, 2000

By	Lance Kirby (Portsmouth, OH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As well as being a great historian Plutarch was a philosopher who used the examples of good and infamous men alike to reinforce his conception of morality and what the best in a man can truly be. Unlike other classical historians, he doesn't just except stories about individuals at face value but always mentions conflicting facts in the historical record. He often digresses in mid narrative, but never to the reader's frustration, as it is always with an eye to the social practice's and political enviroment of the people of whom he writes, analyzing deeply with an anecdote here or an quotation there the merits and demerits of that society, and leaving us with a clearer picture of the classical mind-set as well as we might know it. As for the translation of Dryden which my fellow reviewer below much bemoans, I can only say that as a classic of English prose style it ranks only second to Gibbon and reminds us that Plutarch means not just to educate, but to delight and entertain as well; such an achievement is not easily matched without the advantage of genius.

20 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Out of date translation of a timeless classic, July 2, 2004

By	G. G Thain "Often wrong, never unsure" (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is a shame that such an interesting, and historicaly valuable work such as Plutarch's lives is so difficult for modern readers. Though many others have commented on how difficult this English is for the modern reader, consider the following quote taken at random, from the first two sentences of the life of the Roman Camillus:

Among the many remarkable things that are related of Furius Camillus, it seems singular and strange above all, that he, who continually was in the highest commands, and obtained the greatest successes, was five times chosen dictator, triumphed four times, and was styled a second founder of Rome, yet never was so much as once consul. The reason of which was the state and temper of the commonwealth at that time; for the people, being at dissension with the senate, refused to return consuls, but in their stead elected other magistrates, called military tribunes, who acted, indeed, with full consular power, but were thought to exercise a less obnoxious amount of authority, because it was divided among a larger number; for to have the management of affairs entrusted in the hands of six persons rather than two was some satisfaction to the opponents of oligarchy.

Ugh. And on it goes. The North translation is even worse, to my ear. The best translation that I've found is the Loeb Classical Library. However, they are spread across eleven volumes, making for a very expensive acquisition.