A paperback anthology of essential Greek and Latin texts with facing English translations.

This selection of lapidary nuggets drawn from thirty-three of antiquity's major authors includes poetry, dialogue, philosophical writing, history, descriptive reports, satire, and fiction-giving a glimpse at the wide range of arts and sciences, thought and styles, of Greco-Roman culture.

The selections span twelve centuries, from Homer to Saint Jerome. The texts and translations are reproduced as they appear in Loeb volumes.

The Loeb Classical Library is the only existing series that, through original text and English translation, gives access to all that is important in Greek and Latin literature. A Loeb Classical Library Reader offers a unique sampling of this treasure trove.

In these pages you will find, for example: 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 AD 79.

Here you can enjoy looking in on people, real and imaginary, who figure prominently in ancient history, and on notable events. Here, too, you can relish classical poetry and comedy, and get a taste of the ideas characteristic of the splendid culture to which we are heir.

About the Author
A complete list of the works available in the Loeb Classical Library is available at www.hup.harvard.edu/loeb.

Reviews
A small book that has been my companion on every train and bus journey for the past two weeks... It is a pocket-sized selection of some of the greatest writers who ever lived... Most of the passages in the book are all the better for being highly familiar-Medea contemplating the murder of her own children, Socrates dismissing his wife so that he can die talking bravely with chaps about the afterlife, Laocoon fearing the Greeks, even when bringing gifts such as the Trojan horse. -- A. N. Wilson * Daily Telegraph *
A winsome book, only 6 1/2 inches high, the Reader differs from classical anthologies that one typically sees on bookstore shelves: It provides not only a translation of the selections but also the text in the original Greek or Latin. Its appearance carries on the tradition of the Loeb Classical Library and celebrates the publication of the 500th title in a series that began in 1912. -- Michael Poliakoff * Wall Street Journal *
Even for those with little Latin and less Greek, this compendium will bring enormous pleasure. Loeb is, indeed, a many-splendoured thing. -- Peter Jones * The Spectator *
This little book is a delight to hold and to read... You would, if you're remotely interested in books, be hard-pressed to find anything better anywhere on which to spend your money. -- Bradley Winterton * Taipei Times *
It is ideal reading for bar, bus, bed or beach. Everyone, teacher and taught alike, should have one. It is this year's must-have present. -- Peter Jones * Journal of Classics Teaching *
If medals were given for heroic achievements in the publishing world, a big, bright, shiny gong would surely have been awarded long ago to the Loeb Classical Library... A Loeb Classical Library Reader is a trim little paperback, consisting of short extracts from 33 of Loeb's authors. It is an easily accessible, genuinely pocket-sized anthology. -- Anthony Lejeune * The Tablet *
This anthology provides a leisurely flat-rock skip across the wide, roistering seas of ancient experience. Nevertheless, while the current general editor, Jeffrey Henderson, claims that selecting passages for the Reader 'occasioned no little debate' among those charged with the choosing, the result satisfies... These byway pieces most of us never read in school, and they remind us that more always waits to be discovered. And raising the curtain on the slightest portions of these treasures may be this anthology's greatest virtue. -- Tracy Lee Simmons * Weekly Standard *



Book Information
ISBN 9780674996168
Author Loeb Classical Library
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Harvard University Press
Publisher Harvard University Press