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Rating: 
Summary: a fine latin edition of Catullus
Review: Catullus is lovely. We should all read him once a week, lest we lose our exuberance and become prudes.This paperback edition is excellent for students of Latin, but beware that there are no English translations. There are, however, extensive and high-quality notes by Garrison, including grammatical explanations and vocabulary.
Rating: 
Summary: Flawed...
Review: Garrison's book is not the soundest text for people reading Catullus in Latin. For one thing, the book does a disservice in "titling" every poem in the collection with an English one-liner...this goes a long way towards influencing the reader before s/he even reads the Latin. Second, there is no critical apparatus with the Latin text...and with a poet like Catullus, for whom textual issues are more than marginally important, this is a lamentable loss...even beginning Latin students can be sophisticated enough not to think that the text of an author was handed down by Jupiter on golden tablets...or in this case, in a forest green paperback. Fordyce's 1961 Oxford commentary remains standard for the poems he covers (and contrary to popular lore he did not leave the others out out of a sense of Puritanism but rather because the Oxford Press at the time thought the book would sell to a larger market with the obscene poems omitted)...there is also Merrill, still in print (he has every poem)...and for more accomplished Latinists, we now have Thomson's big 1997 volume. If you can find it, Kenneth Quinn's 1970 commentary on the whole corpus is also worth a close look...
Rating:
Summary: Flawed...
Review: Garrison's book is not the soundest text for people reading Catullus in Latin. For one thing, the book does a disservice in "titling" every poem in the collection with an English one-liner...this goes a long way towards influencing the reader before s/he even reads the Latin. Second, there is no critical apparatus with the Latin text...and with a poet like Catullus, for whom textual issues are more than marginally important, this is a lamentable loss...even beginning Latin students can be sophisticated enough not to think that the text of an author was handed down by Jupiter on golden tablets...or in this case, in a forest green paperback. Fordyce's 1961 Oxford commentary remains standard for the poems he covers (and contrary to popular lore he did not leave the others out out of a sense of Puritanism but rather because the Oxford Press at the time thought the book would sell to a larger market with the obscene poems omitted)...there is also Merrill, still in print (he has every poem)...and for more accomplished Latinists, we now have Thomson's big 1997 volume. If you can find it, Kenneth Quinn's 1970 commentary on the whole corpus is also worth a close look...
Rating:
Summary: Verona's Dark Prince is Back! Way to Go, Daniel.
Review: Learned, exciting and accessible, Garrison's edition of Catullus is the best in over a century (since Elmer Merrill's Carmina in 1893). Garrison has decided not to obstruct a classic's own text, instead allowing Gaius Valerius Catullus to speak for himself--yet offering grammatical advice, relevant historical and political information, and commentary only when absolutely needed. Thanks, Daniel! I'll be keeping my edition for a long time. Here the text and the Poet are given the highest consideration. Even a Latin scholar who's had the opportunity to take only 100 level classes will be able to read and enjoy all 116 poems--and that's important. But remember--there's nothing wrong reading Catullus, or any Roman author, in translation. Some translations of Catullus are a little dense for first-timers, but Goold and Cornish's are really good.
Rating:
Summary: Superlative resource for AP or college-level students.
Review: This book is simply outstanding--recommended for anyone formally studying Catullus, or perhaps even any Latin student with a passing interest in the poet. Garrison is quite good, for the most part, at letting the poems shine forth unobstructed by any sort of critical commentary. At the same time, he provides a great deal of useful background info for each poem, elucidating quite well the figures and places of Catullus' works, as well as extensive notes, often covering many of the more obscure aspects of the poems. Any drawbacks of the text escape my mind--I have had nothing but positive experiences using Garrison's text. For those studying the poems of Catullus at or below the college level, it's indubitably the best of its kind.
Rating:
Summary: Superlative resource for AP or college-level students.
Review: This book is simply outstanding--recommended for anyone formally studying Catullus, or perhaps even any Latin student with a passing interest in the poet. Garrison is quite good, for the most part, at letting the poems shine forth unobstructed by any sort of critical commentary. At the same time, he provides a great deal of useful background info for each poem, elucidating quite well the figures and places of Catullus' works, as well as extensive notes, often covering many of the more obscure aspects of the poems. Any drawbacks of the text escape my mind--I have had nothing but positive experiences using Garrison's text. For those studying the poems of Catullus at or below the college level, it's indubitably the best of its kind.
Rating: 
Summary: The perfect edition for students
Review: This handy edition is perfect for the casual reader of Latin. Garrison's extensive notes answer most questions a reader is likely to have concerning the grammer and they also provide a considerable amount of relevent mythology. The book also contains a complete vocabulary which I have found invaluable. This is not a scholarly edition, but provides everything for the non-scholar.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect edition for students
Review: This handy edition is perfect for the casual reader of Latin. Garrison's extensive notes answer most questions a reader is likely to have concerning the grammer and they also provide a considerable amount of relevent mythology. The book also contains a complete vocabulary which I have found invaluable. This is not a scholarly edition, but provides everything for the non-scholar.
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