Rating: 
Summary: Not a Perfect Text But Good For Beginner
Review: Despite of all the negative comments and even the severe attacks on this old text, Wheelock's Latin offers one of the better text for beginning Latin students. Adaptations and abbreviations from Latin prose are understandably and reasonably quoted as a paced guide to learning the language. Grammar is explained in a very easy-to-follow manner. I recommend this text for beginning students and those who wish to refresh the basic grammatical rules of Latin.
Rating:
Summary: An indispensable introduction
Review: I've used Wheelock's Latin from both sides: as a disaffected student, eager to learn a language that I didn't have to -speak-, and as an instructor, in several of Indiana University's entry-level courses.As a student, I fell maddeningly in love with this book. It's not an easy read, nor is it like most college textbooks. It can be pedagogical at times, old-fashioned at others (another reviewer pointed out the recent excisions of some non-PC examples), but above all, it's -thorough-. It was written in the 1950s, when most college students were expected to have a better grasp on English grammar and general history and mythology than perhaps students do today. If you don't know your reflexive pronouns from your prepositional phrases, you'll run into trouble even in the early chapters. But with a little effort, you'll find that Wheelock's really teaching you -two- languages: Latin and better English. As a teacher, I evaluated a few different texts (such as Hillard and Botting), before settling on Wheelock. I'll admit that a large part of my decision was based on my own experience learning from it (and why not? If -I- didn't like learning from it myself, why would I want to subject my students to it?), but there were other factors, such as its -less- pedantic tone and better-organized way of introducing grammatical concepts. Based on feedback from the three courses in which I used it, most students had positive things to say about the book, appreciating the demands that it made on them. Of course, some students didn't like it at all, probably because of those same demands. There are a couple of drawbacks that prevent me from awarding Wheelock that fifth star. First, the current (6th) edition isn't as solid (for lack of a better word) than the 3rd, which you should immediately buy if you ever find it for sale. Second, the reading passages in the back of the book aren't nearly as useful (or interesting to most students) as the ones in Groton and May's _38 Latin Stories_. Third, as other reviewers have pointed out, Wheelock doesn't contain any sort of anecdotal historical or cultural information to liven up the delivery of what can be pretty dry grammatical material. This is an especial weakness, in light of my comment in the previous paragraph about how little historical background knowledge students usually have. But there are no other Latin introductory texts that strike Wheelock's perfect balance between the classical pedagogy of the 19th century and the more recent attempts to mass-market Latin to "complete idiots" and "dummies".
Rating: 
Summary: Don't even think about using this without a teacher
Review: I don't know what geniuses mingle amongst my fellow reviewers, but I am not one of them.
After chapter 10, this book, WITH the workbook and WITH other help, is entirely out of my league. I have dabbled in a few languages, and I must say this is one of the most cryptic approaches I have ever encountered. Marketed and originally written for self study, it amazes me this book ever got published.
(But then again, "da Vinci Code" is a bestseller, so perhaps there's my answer.) For one, the information is not complete. Irregular verbs and nouns and exceptions to the rules are mentioned fleetingly, charts are regularly broken up and hard to follow as a result. Answers are only available to half the exercises. What good are exercises without being able to check your answers, in a self study situation ? The authors make it a hunting game in order to understand fully. There are definitely not enough practice readings and the accompanying book "Wheelock Reader" is only after you have covered about half the textbook. To prove my point, I ask you to try and discover here, in the book description of the "Wheelock Reader" which exactly which chapter one should begin to use the Reader. It's not given. So what good is the book if you don't know when to use it ? Dale Grote generously offers an inexpensive study guide as well as all his lectures for free, online. If you are an exceptional student, then you will have luck with this series WITH the help of Mr. Grote. Don't even think about not getting his study guide if you go this route. The Wheelock Workbook, for extra exercises for some bizarre reason does not include answers.
Instead, one must write away for them. Why ? I dunno. According to accounts posted in various places on the internet, receiving the answer guide is successful about 50% of the time. Why ? I dunno. Learning is challenging enough without being further taxed by inane antics and sadistic scavenger hunts for confirmation of your progress or simply trying to round out a full picture of a concept. This book might be good for a university class. But as a self study book it serves only as a deterrent.
Rating: 
Summary: Your vini, vidi, vici in Latin.
Review: Wheelock's Latin is simply the best available Latin Grammar written for the English student in the States and abroad. You will get all your money's worth back in the form of a concise but precise history of the Latin language, from where it comes in the Indo-european family of languages, and its parenthood to the so-called Romance languages (as an add-on, you can learn some Italian, Spanish and French, too), its presence in modern English, and also four very interesting black and white maps of Roman expansion trough Europe, Africa and Asia Minor, additioned to the original book by Mr.Richard LaFleur, the editor of this 6th and pretty modern and elegant edition. Wheelock's Latin is, in fact, a phenomenon and a landmark not only in terms of its sales numbers but also as a basis for the creation of a Latin true book market, given the huge quantity of books and books of exercices that were created or inspired and have developed since the book was first published, in order to fulfill the amazing demand created by it. At Wheelock's you learn Latin step by step, having as your teacher, an attentive master, who knows the best path to the learning of the language of Horace, Cicero and Virgil and others (sure, they and many others are all there, with texts progressively adapted according to the level of proficiency of the student). Latin sentences to be translated into English and the other way around abound, with all the necessary vocabulary listed before the exercises. If more is needed, the student is helped by a very good glossary at the end of the book, where all the words are listed in alphabetical order and according to Latin use of the nominative and genitive cases in the case of nouns and adjectives, and, in the case of verbs, with verbs listed in alphabetical order, in the Latin way, e.g., (amo, as, are, atum). Keys to the exercises are also presented in the end of the book, thus facilitating your doing of your Latin homework workload. The book begins with the conjugation of the verbs in the first regular conjugation and proceeds till the 4th regular conjugation and then the student is presented to the passive forms of the regular conjugations, the irregular ones, the semi-deponents and , finally, the deponents verbs, a very Latinian form of conjugation. Along the way, he/she is presented to the important concept of declensions, used in the so-called synthetic languages (Greek, Russian, German, for instance) being gradually introduced to the "conjugations" of nouns, adjectives and numerals in Latin. All this, as I said, nice and easily, learning a lot of useful things along the way. I could imagine of no better Latin grammar for the student of English nowadays and I hope you enjoy its reading and exercises as much as I did. Valete!!
Rating:
Summary: Good beginning...
Review: This book offers the beginning Latinist a nice walk-through of grammar and vocabulary. It is especially appropriate for students who are tackling Latin on their own as it includes some exercises that have keys in the back. It also includes some basic vocabulary to help students in their readings of the text.
However, this book would not be the best choice for someone who is trying to learn as much Latin as possible in a short period of time.
For someone serious about the study of Latin (and who is able to take some time with the language) this book will provide a solid foundation!
Rating:
Summary: The definitive guide to Latin
Review: This book seems to be the definitive guide to Latin, and rightfully so. Mr. Wheelock does a great job of presenting the language in a logical and exciting way. His use of speeches, stories, and quotes from ancient authors make learning Latin exciting. Make no mistake about it, Latin is a complicated and often difficult language, but Mr. Wheelock walks you through everything step by step. One of the greatest advantages of using this book is the tremendous amount of books, study guides, and on-line resources that are designed to aid you with Wheelock's Latin. So you will never end up being lost without having somewhere to turn for additional help. The only flaw in this book is the lack of an answer key for the quotes at the end of each chapter. Homo doctus in se semper divitias habet
Rating:
Summary: methodical and useful
Review: Contains lots of useful examples, chapters are in workable chunks, and the workbook is a good companion as well. For going it alone, without a teacher, this is a good text.
Rating:
Summary: Frater Wheelock Latinae difficilis fecit
Review: As far as an introduction to classical and ecclesiastical writings, Wheelock does a decent Job. And the methodology is a bit above other Latin Grammar's. As someone who has studied and taught Latin for 2 years, I have to note it has serious flaws. The problem Wheelock gives is failing to treat Latin as a language to be learned, and is taught more like a system. Even a dead language must still be spoken and relevant if someone is going to learn it. The number of irrelevant sentences in Wheelock and other Latin grammars are enough to drive one mad! This is the fundamental problem that Latin has encountered at the hands of its grammarians in this country. One could spend an hour to two hours a day with Wheelock and the exercises, and still be as clueless reading simple texts like Caesar's de Bello Gallico, Livy, Pliny the Younger, or the Latin Christian writers and the Vulgate. Wheelock fails miserably in giving the student training and reading in complex sentences, and the student learns only to read in fragments and not linguistically. There is not enough break down of Latin concepts into English concepts, and the Subjunctive is taught only at the end of the book, without very much follow up exercise work to drill with, yet the Subjunctive is as important as the Indicative. Without it reading and understanding Latin is impossible. A student would be far better off with the Oxford Series, or else with Moreland and Fleishers: "Latin an intensive course". Anyone looking to learn Ecclesastical Latin would do best with Fr. Collins' "A primer of Ecclesiastical Latin", all of which can be found on Amazon.
Rating:
Summary: The best
Review: Wheelock's Latin has been around for over 40 years, and for good reason. It is the best introductory grammar of Latin that I've come across. People bring to the study of a foreign language different expectations, different levels of linguistic sophistication, and different learning styles. So it's no surprise that there are a wide variety of reactions to Wheelock's text. I think it's the best for the following reasons: 1. It doesn't assume you know a lot of grammar - they don't just drop 'demonstrative pronoun' and 'subjunctive' on you; the concepts are explained clearly. 2. Lessons contain one or two grammatical points, with many examples of their proper use. 3. Practice exercises (and answers!) are given in the rear of the book. You could also buy the companion exercise book if you want, but caveat emptor! - the answers are not included. (I wrote to Harper Collins, and they sent me the URL and password for the website that contains the answers.) For my money, it's the best and gentlest introduction to Latin available, and it's suitable for all ages, from high school on up. With Wheelock under your belt, you'll be ready to take on annotated readings, and hit some of the more advanced grammars.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, of course, but not for the faint-hearted
Review: Having just pulled myself through the complete course and had no particular difficulties with it, I do have one concern. I'm afraid I'll only be able to read Latin if I translate it sentence by sentence. You see, you're not learning this as any other language, ie fluently, you're only taught how to translate it. Some people here can think I'm completely missing the 'point' of learning Latin, but why can I learn Russian, which in some areas is even more complicated than Latin, fluently and not Latin? Or why some people can learn Finnish with its 15 or so cases. It's not as if Latin is in any way more 'difficult' than other languages, it's just taught that way. I bought this book in the first place to complement my (eq. of) High School studies. I felt I was still looking things up in the dictionary, without 'knowing' and 'understanding' what I was reading. That hasn't changed much as you're not going to learn much vocabulary through this course. It has helped me a lot with understanding difficult grammatical constructions however, which is what this book is all about. I'm not saying you should learn Latin from some zippy modern "learn Latin by listening" course, but some more focus on 'understanding' the language as opposed to being able to translate it would have been welcome. Though if you buy some books that focus on reading texts, the practical side of Latin will also be learnt sufficiently.
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