Rating: 
Summary: Do NOT buy this series.
Review: This is the "Old Fashioned" way of learning a language. Full of rules, grammar, etc. How many of us learned the grammar, rules, etc before we learned to speak it? I've been against this way of learning language since I was in high school many years ago. It comes with a workbook, but you have to write for it and Harper Collins won't send it. I'm not the only one who has asked for this answer book and not received it. I was totally ignored, even thought I wrote on school letterhead from the principal's office, and wrote them a note explaining that I am a teacher and need it right away to prepare for the Fall class. They couldn't care less. There is no cassette or CD. How can you learn a language without listening to pronunciations? Even in the books it says read aloud, or listen, etc. I gave it one star only because I can't give it minus 5 stars. Transparent Language has a program called "Latin Now!". It is available everywhere. They get to the point immediately, and you are speaking Latin with the proper pronunciation immediately. Take my word for it, unless you are a serious professional, such as a teacher or professor who will eventually teach Latin the wrong way, stay away from this method.
Rating: 
Summary: only for grammar experts
Review: This might not seem fair to Wheelock since I actually haven't worked all the way through this book, but I had to put my two cents in since I love learning languages (have studied several - french (strong reading and writing skills), spanish (near native fluency), german (one semester), taught myself braille 1&2, studied sign language, and studied/transliterated biblical hebrew and classical greek. I love languages and communicating, and am an avid book lover (have my own library) and writer.Suffice to say, that what I did do out of Wheelock's book, I picked up the linguistic bit fairly well. However, this book is for someone who is VERY APPLIED. I usually have to be in a classroom setting to begin my study of any language, so from someone who constantly is studying languages, I must advise those who are trying to learn this with only english as a background to go to a class and take at least a few months of latin. For the person who is going backwards like me, and has studied other languages, it should not be as hard to apply yourself if you are disciplined. Wheelock's book is cut and dry. The other Latin books that I have in my library are Latin Grammar for Christian Homeschools and Latin for Americans... I am currently using this book to teach myself Latin. I bought the book from an used bookstore called The Reader's Corner. They always have a good language section. Latin for Americans has sections on the history of Rome, which I find a must for anyone studying a language. I do not care if a student chooses to skip over the section on the history, I feel like it should be in every book. I also like the english grammar review that it gives in the beginning of the book. (It didn't give english exercises, but it was thoughtful just the same.) I even used it as a guide to backtrack and help my spanish students. Wheelock's book, however, is appropriate for those who are learning Latin in a hurry and do not need to know all of the riffraff pertaining to the language. They essentially need a more detailed version of cliff notes. I have the fifth edition and the back has an answer key, which I think is just wonderful. For those who have a choice in books and are trying to teach themselves, try Teach Yourself Latin (I was able to check it out from my library with cassette) and get the cassette. The quality of language books are going down the drain, so you may end up paying quite a penny if you choose other books. Sometimes you may have a problem with the speed of language cassettes. The native speakers may seem like they talk a mile a minute. Don't waste your money on phrase books, unless you have a background in a language. There are absolutely TOO many phrase books and cassettes on the market. Don't cheat yourself. Buy a textbook. ALWAYS get language books from the library or visit a college or university library to see what they have in stock. From spending a hour or two at a library, you can save yourself from wasting your money. It also allows you to sit down and read a chapter and try to do the first exercises. From there you should be able to decide whether you should purchase that book or not, and of course, pray that it's in print (since things drop out of print real fast). I'd also recommend looking to see if they have 501 Latin Verbs. I have the spanish and hebrew version and they are helpful. *I try to never leave home without my library card.* I DO PLAN ON BUYING THIS BOOK AND WORKBOOK, after I find out if the library has the sixth edition. So that should let you know something. :)
Rating: 
Summary: Overall, it is a good grammar study guide to Latin
Review: Wheelock's Latin is a good primer on Latin grammar and syntax. Learning Latin opens a whole new window to Roman culture and literature. Granted, I'm still struggling along in my syntax and vocabulary. If you're studying the classics or Latin than I'd recommend you get this book. It is, I understand this text is the most popular introductory Latin textbook in high school and college and for good reason. Also, if you're a new student of Latin than I recommend you get a good companion dictionary... perhaps the Oxford Pocket Dictionary to Latin will suffice for beginners.
Rating:
Summary: Good if you know your grammar
Review: Wheelock's Latin is THE latin textbook used in most courses. The book is good, but one thing about it is that it presupposes a good knowledge of english grammar. If you don't know a participle from a preposition, you will be confused. Why? The chapters are very brief and to the point. No fluff or narrative to explain grammar, just a straightforward explanation for the grammar-literate about the rules of how latin works. The best way to use this book in my opinion is to find the Wheelock Latin notes written by Dale Grote (they are posted on the internet), and use those. If you read his notes for each chapter first, then you'll be able to understand the Wheelock book easily. In fact, if you read Grote's notes first, then the Wheelock chapter second, then do the exercises in the back of the book (and possibly also the workbook if your class uses it) third, you'll do fine.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book
Review: This book is worth every penny you spend on it (although I did buy mine used through Amazon). Search the net and get the accompanying documents and help files as well. Invest in a latin translater as well (I have one on my iPaq).
Rating:
Summary: Still the one; but the revision needs revision
Review: I can prove, not only by recourse to the previous edition, but also to my wartorn reprint from 1969, that Wheelock originally used the Latin verb "duco, ducere" as the main third declension verb, meaning "to lead." The Sixth Edition arbitrarily swiches this to "ago, agere." Now this verb means "to lead" in only one very narrow sense; more properly it translates "to do," which I contend becomes shockingly clear at its future passive participle, "agendum." Surely, nobody whose native tongue is English can seriously doubt that an agenda is what one is going to do, not what one is going to lead. Arrggh! I have written the publisher long ere now and heard nothing from them. They've had abundant time to respond. Also, the composer of material for the Workbook often wanders far out of step from the main book. Case in point: on p. 26, the text makes a special point of the fact that "sum, esse" has no active or passive voice. On p. 46, the Workbook asks for the conjugation of "esse" in "active indicative tenses." This careless mistake is carried over into "possum" on the next page. No question that, as many reviewers have pointed out, Wheelock uses English as its principal window into Latin. Students who were gypped out of proper grammar instruction practically must be re-trained, which consumes a huge amount of instructional time and energy. The English-as-a-window aspect is both a blessing and a curse, because it is high quality English that helps. I've told my students that they simply aren't reading high enough on the food chain if the derivatives are often strange! But, regardless of the method used, some of the caveats raised here apply equally as well. Let nothing obscure the overall conclusion that Wheelock is so good, probably nothing will supercede it for a long time to come. And, right now, it's messed up in places and is in dire need of fixing.
Rating:
Summary: THE Latin Introductory Course
Review: This is simply a great buy if you want to learn Latin. The book is basically the best way to learn Latin. Others may say that is wrong, but you cannot go wrong with this book. The pronunciation guide is very clear and helps with what is the hardest letter for me, the r. The lessons are brief and will teach you what you need know. But as they say, nothing is perfect. The only two things that threw me off were the way the lessons are written and the practice sentences. The first problem is that the author does speak in a grammatical language, which could be a problem if you do not know your English grammar. The second is that there is no answer key for the sentences in the lesson. Some of these senteces can be very hard and the correct translation would have been nice. Even though, this is still a great buy for learning Latin.
Rating:
Summary: Latin Grammer
Review: A classic Latin grammer text. A good book for teaching yourself Latin with a very no frills approach to the Latin language. This book will teach you Latin grammer from the ground up, not phrases. But if you're not very hot with English grammer this book may be a little to technical for you.
Rating:
Summary: Great book: read it carefully and do the exercises!
Review: I think this book is great. One thing that I really like (although it was slightly annoying at first, it grew on me) was Wheelock's insistence on relating every English word with Latin roots back to the Latin. (Kind of reminds you of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" where the father keeps saying "X comes from the Greek word Y ... there you go.") For example, in chapter 12 it introduces the perfect tenses; the footnote notes that this comes from "per + factus". It really makes you understand where our words come from, even (perhaps especially) words that we use so often, we take them for granted - like "perfect" - and gives you a new appreciation for how indebted English is to Latin. I would certainly agree with one thing that I have seen in other reviews: read every part of this book carefully. Everything in the main part (the chapters) is important. In fact, in this way, it shows its roots (as a set of study notes originally distributed to Latin classes by Wheelock). The book, like many grammars, doesn't have a huge number of original Latin readings during the course. The later editions fix this somewhat with the addition of the translation sections to each chapter. But I would recommend you get another source of readings to be used, such as the companion book Workbook for Wheelock's Latin or Groton and May's 38 Latin Stories (or better, buy both). This book takes sort of a middle ground when it comes to teaching grammar. On the one hand, there is the pure inductive method (which some of the people who gave this book bad reviews favor). For a young child, pure induction makes sense; but for an adult, I don't think it does at all. True, I learned English by induction; but I'm an adult now. I learn differently than I did then. On the other hand, there is a morphological type of approach, where you learn only a few forms and a set of rules to apply those forms. I actually think this method works very well, but Wheelock's doesn't take it. Wheelock's takes the traditional deductive memorization route of teaching, which was more difficult for me than it could have been. It has its detractors, but many, many adults have successfully been taught Latin over the years using this method, which is something you can't say for the others. I cannot agree with those other reviewers who say that LaFleur's attempts at humor (such as the "Latina est gaudium" sections) take away from the book. On the contrary, though some of the puns are quite bad (I think Dr. LaFleur would agree :-) I found them enjoyable and a nice break from serious language study. Two other cautions about the book: 1. When I first started, I didn't pay as much attention to the exercises in the back as I should have. Don't make the same mistake I did! Assiduously ("ad + sedere" - see, it's catching?) do the exercises! If you just skim the chapters, as I did at first, you will not get it! I think at least some of the negative reviews were from people trying to get by doing the minimum possible work, which means not doing the exercises. You get out of it what you put into it. 2. You may have to come up with some of your own devices to help memorize the endless tables of conjugations ("com + iugare"), etc. For example, I was completely ("com + plere" - ok, I won't do it any more) stumped until I made myself a sheet with "hic, haec, hoc, huius, ... ille, illa, illud ... etc." randomly laid out and spent about an hour going through that sheet. (This is not so much a criticism of this book as of the complexity of Latin in the first place.) One more hint: unless you really, really have to, don't spend a lot of your brain cells on memorizing positions of long and short vowels. Unless you're planning on writing a lot of Latin (mostly poetry), it's just not that important. If you recognize vowel length and how it affects accent, that's enough for most people. (I am not counting in this fortunate group (a) people who are taking Latin for credit or (b) people who want to teach Latin. They probably have to learn the vowel lengths.)
Rating:
Summary: Vivat lingua Latina, vivat hic liber!
Review: Years ago, deciding I wanted to learn Latin, I began looking at several grammars to study from. I finally chose Wheelock, and am throughly happy that I did. It's a great one-volume course. Grammar is laid out clearly, the etymological aids in the vocabulary are a bonus, and the reading selections well-chosen and heavily annotated. My only complaint with the Wheelock method is that there are no English-to-Latin exercises. I think it would also have been better if some of the advanced readings were printed with unmarked vowel length--since that's how most Latin texts are published--but that's a very minor quibble. You can use this book for self-study as I did, but I would not recommend doing so if you don't live near a library with the Loeb (bilingual) editions of the classics. They make it easy to check your translations for mistakes.
Wheelock is meant for mature students, so I find it hard to understand why the latest editor chose to write the "Latin: Gaudium et Utile! sections in such an arch and juvenile style. I think we must also blame the latest editor for the horrible boner of including a quote from Byron which he evidently thinks refers to Latin but which is actually a praise of Italian. Oh well. Perhaps a good teacher could use this edition as an example of manuscript tradition -- a lesser redactor "touching up" the work of a master!
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