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Rating: 
Summary: Top rate introduction to the Calculus
Review: As a high school teacher of mathematics and one who truly loves the subject, this is one of the better introductions to the Calculus (others include "Calculus Made Easy" by Silvanus Thompson and "Calculus: A Liberal Art" by W. M. Priestley). Kline, one of those rare teachers who can really communicate the subject, is at home in explaining the "hows and whys" of this most fascinating and beautiful mathematical tool and he even includes review for those still weak in some aspects of algebra and coordinate geometry. Some of the reviewers of this book have complained about the lack of a solutions manual. It is available. Contact Dover Publications (www.doverpublications.com) and they will send you a PDF version free of charge! Because of the availability of these solutions, this book will serve as an excellent and inexpensive source of study (for upper level high school, first year college, independent study, or as calculus refresher) for mathophiles for many years to come.
Rating: 
Summary: Appears to be excellent, but...a warning: No answers!
Review: I just bought this book and it appears to be everything it is reputed to be. However, there is no answer key and the (separate) solutions manual is not offered by Amazon, probably out of print. Hence the four stars.
Rating: 
Summary: decent book with some drawbacks
Review: I totally agree with Kline in that calculus, at the beginning anyway, should be taught in an intuitive way, since 1st-years aren't used to mathematical rigour. There is plenty of time to get used to the more abstract, rigourous approach to doing calculus/analysis.
Rating:
Summary: A great first calculus book
Review: I've taken math through Calc through high school and college. No book has done a better job of explaining how it works than this one. All math books should be written like this one. Clear and practical. If there's something you need to know, he tells you exactly what it is. Such as, if you need to know something from trigonometry, he explains it well enough that you will either understand it or know what to look up in another book. However, do not think this book needs other books in order to get through it. You should have already had trig and algebra and geometry. But even if you've forgotten it all, this book will get you through to the end.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to basic calculus
Review: Kline does a superb job at covering a wide range of topics in calculus, while presenting them in a clear and relatively in-depth manner. This book is not only great for someone who has no experience in calculus, but it also great for someone who is reviewing the basics. Although the size of the book is somewhat intimidating (950ish pages), the book is written in a very readable and logical order. Also, interspersed throughout are some extra sections that discuss specific physical applications of the techniques studied in that chapter. Personally, these sections are fascinating and quite rewarding. It succeeds both as an overview/introduction to calculus and as a segue to higher mathematics. If you are just starting out on your voyage through calculus or are brushing up on the basics, this is the book for you.
One small problem is that there are only answers listed for some of the questions in the problem sets. These answers are listed right next to the problems themselves, so they are difficult to cover up. Furthermore, the solutions manual is very hard to find, if it is available at all. My advice is to do the problems from a different text that has answers and just read straight through this book. Other than that, however, this is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: A fine book!
Review: Morris Kline has written a really excellent book here. It is somewhat different from the typical calculus books one reads: there is less formalism and greater apeal to your intuition (hence the title). Kline works hard to ground the book to reality, so is it useful and applicable, rather than just an exercise in superficial algebraic regurgitation as so many others teach calculus to be. This is a work that wants you to understand not only how...but why! This is a truly important approach: because if you understand why, then you understand how and you have the flexibility to really use the calculus. Just knowing how means you loose some of the connection and treat it as a process rather than a tool. This books at times feels deep, like the philosophy of calculus in addition to a howto, not just a perfunctry, dry how-to. Kline provides realistic examples and focus attention on scientific and practical uses of calculus: eg motion down a inclined plain, projectiles, etc. There are lots of problems in each section. ONly complaint: the answers are a little sparse at times. Generally the problems are robust and a little tricky know and then (this is good! Makes you interpret and apply...not just apply). The literacy components are quite strong in questions. Kline has an excellent teaching pedagogy! The style of writing is excellent, familiar and warm. Kline write like he is like that smart, cool, friendly lecturer we found once at university and longed for the rest of the time we were there. He clearly loves what he is teaching and wants you to succeed and tries to help you to do so. His language is not so stilted as most mathematics books seem to be; humor creeps in here and there which is cool because it makes you feel welcome inside the book, not just a nobody to whom the author is indifferent. The book is arranged in a typical sequence (you can look inside the book and see that). And is the best value for money calculus book I have EVER seen: it is VERY good. 960 pages of quality. If you want a book of calculus problems buy Schaum's...but if you want to understand calculus...buy this! of course this an introductory calculus book so there is no vector calculus, but it does get multivariate! In all: well worth the 5 stars and the cool price! SHame more books are not like this one.
Rating:
Summary: decent book with some drawbacks
Review: The other reviews already delineated the good points of this textbook, namely that it is well-written and easy to follow. This is a good book for self-learning introductory calculus. I will try to briefly address the drawbacks. First, there are virtually no proofs to be found here. Instead, the author gives intuitive arguments to give a feel for how the mathematics works, claiming that this approach is least confusing. While not everyone may read them, complete proofs should be at least included for those who want to truly understand what's going on. The second problem is the total absense of vectors. I don't understand why these were left out, because the book otherwise seems to cover the complete introductory calculus sequence typically taught in universities. This is even more curious because at the end of the book there are two chapters on differential equations and limits respectively, so space probably wasn't a concern. The book would be better if the last 2 chapters were scrapped, and replaced with a discussion of vectors up to perhaps Stoke's Theorem. I give the book 3 stars because, while it is decent, there are plenty of good introductory calculus books out there and there isn't any particular reason one should choose this one over many others.
Rating:
Summary: A great place to start
Review: This book provides an excellent introduction to Calculus. I've looked at many instructional books and this is by far the most approachable and the easiest to understand.
One of the drawbacks given for this book is the lack of solutions for the study problems but this problem has it's own solution in the form of solution guide available from the publisher for free.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Calculus Book
Review: This is by far my favorite calculus text. The selection out there ranges from cookbook (Stewart and Anton), to elementary (Adams), to quite advanced (Apostol and Spivak). This book really doesn't fall into any of those categories. Proofs are based on heuristic arguments rather than strict adherence to rigor, but this doesn't mean that the book is "dumbed down." Most people go through proofs in Apostol and wonder what they just read, whereas those in Kline greatly enhance the reader's ability to learn the material. Kline may sacrifice rigorous formalism for increased understanding, but most students of calculus will consider this a very good trade off. If you are looking for a theorem-proof, theorem-proof, ad infinitum treatment of calculus, this is probably not your book. If you are looking for a way to really learn the subject from a very gifted teacher, developing your mathematical and physical intuition in the process, then Kline is the best text you can get.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: What more can I say than what others have already said here? Not much. Excellent book, and one of the better books I've ever read. It actually teaches you by giving real examples rather than the jumble of meaningless numbers most math texts give you to memorize.
Despite no answer key (argh!), I still give it 5 stars.
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