Reading Latin: Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises

by Keith C. Sidwell and Peter Jones

Book Overview

Reading Latin is a Latin course designed to help mature beginners read Latin fluently and intelligently, primarily in the context of classical culture, but with some mediaeval Latin too. It does this... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521286220
• ISBN13: 9780521286220
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 636 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.8" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

No better way to learn Latin

This is the companion volume to Reading Latin, by the same authors (q.v.). This volume contains the vocabularies for the reading exercises in Reading Latin, as well as the grammar for each section and copious exercises. The combination is a thorough and effective way to learn Latin while introducing you to some of the best of Latin literature. The vocabularies are cleverly constructed so that you build up a good core vocabulary, without producing ridiculously simple reading sections by trying to keep the vocabulary too restricted. A hint: the authors suggest you don't do all the exercises, but choose a few. You'll do much better if you do most, if not all, of them. Secondly, the course is not called Reading Latin for nothing. There are exercises in translating from English to Latin, but if you want to write Latin, you would be better off with a Latin Prose Composition course. Latin is not an easy language and all language learning takes time. The whole Reading Latin Course will take 18 months to 2 years to work through at a comfortable pace.

This book rescued me from complete ignorance of Latin

I am one of those mature students who did not make out at school and found to my regret that I had hit my forties without achieving any academic qualifications. I studied Philosophy at Bachelors' and Masters' levels when I discovered I wanted to ultimately study mediaeval philosophy at Doctorate level. However, I had zilch Latin and Greek, for I was like the majority of my generation (the ones who had not paid to go to school) and had been denied these subjects at grade school. At the level I was now studying, I needed to read the original texts in Latin and this way was barred to me at that time. I ceased my academic philosophy studies and tried to acquire the necesssary Latin skills in order to read these texts. I tried various grammars and struggled until I came across this book and another set with which I worked a deux: 'the Cambridge Latin Course'. I will talk about the Cambridge course elsewhere. 'Reading Latin' consists of various texts from Latin authors like Cicero and Plautus with appropriate exercises and grammar explanations that take the reader through the essentials of Latin. It was tough going at first for Jones and Sidwell do not go in for the faint hearted. You could say that 'Latin is not for Wimps!'. However, after two years working with the exercises and conscientiously keeping plodding on, even when I felt 'grammar fatigue' coming on, I passed my 'A' level Latin with a grade A distinction! I am now reviewing some of the more grey areas and dipping into Sidwell's follow-up book 'Medieval Latin' (sic) which takes the keen reader and me, the hopeful mediaevalist, into the areas where Latin became the repository of Western Thought and the language of the scholar. I am presently working my way through the opening chapters of the sister volume of JACT, 'Reading Greek', that takes the same approach, albeit in three segments and not two. Due to 'Reading Latin', I am now commencing my DPhil studies in the Fall, confident I can handle the material. I would have been unable to do this without the basics covered in this book. As I have already emphasised, Latin is not an easy subject and is not for the faint hearted, although its rigours are ultimately extremely rewarding. I believe the educationalists, those hidden strategists of class education, were ultimately wrong to deny Latin to working class people like me, who they supposed would occupy some menial niche under someone who had. However, with this book and accompanying text and some steely perseverance, the dogged formerly classics-denied individual will finally get where they wish to arrive: easily reading and appreciating these immortal writings of great beauty and structure that underpin the very culture that we belong to; these works that were supposed to be so great that they were to be kept from the many, as a preserve for the elect. I believe Cicero, Ovid and Horace would agree with me!

A reader from FL

If you are in search of a great book that will help you in your quest to learn to Read Latin, then, this is the book for you! The information provided is thorough, and organized in a way that every philologist will appreciate. It covers Latin grammar and vocabulary in a section by section manner, with each section building on the previous section learned. Each section follows the same format: Latin running vocabulary, learning vocabulary, and grammar, in addition to other helps such as "word building," "everyday Latin," and "Real Latin." Then, continues on with the following exercises that reinforce the students growing knowledge of Latin: Morphology (translating English into Latin), Reading (translation of Latin text using correct grammar), and English-Latin (translating Latin into English). This text also provides a "Glossary of English-Latin Grammar," "Total Latin-English Learning Vocabulary," "Total English-Latin Vocabulary for exercises," "Additional Learning Vocabulary," and a handy "Index of Grammar" used throughout the text. It is a great help for adult students and non-students alike learning the language, or for those studying classical culture in general. A must have for any Latin aficionado (from Latin "affectio" AFFECTION)!