Love and Transformation: An Ovid Reader

Rating:
Summary: The Way Latin Texts Ought To Be Taught
Review: This is truly a fantastic book, and one which is a joy to read no matter what your level of proficiency with Latin is (though you should have the basics down first, i.e., first-year college Latin or the equivalent). Dr. Lafleur gives you the ultimate in easy-to-use formats: it has running vocabulary and notes on the opposite page from the Latin as well as underneath it. It also has a Latin glossary in the back, thus making it very, very easy to use. The notes include great comments on grammar, stylistic points, and rhetorical figures as well as on the sound of the Latin poetry itself (Dr. Lafleur really wants you to pay attention to the auricular beauty of the poetry). This is truly the way Latin texts ought to be taught to students. Too often teachers give students editions of Latin texts with very little grammar and vocabulary help and then wonder why kids lose interest and/or cannot get very far. A possible--and sad--outgrowth of this seems to be that some teachers include a lot of Latin in translation in their classes, perhaps out of frustration with students not being able to read enough during the semester. Well, whatever the reason, that wouldn't be necessary if we had more editions like this one.