Rating: 
Summary: One of, if not the, best beginning Latin texts available
Review: I am currently using this text in my beginning Latin course. It has been a wonderful text in which to work and use. The text itself is designed to work in a type of systematic fashion taking the student through the necessary tools of Latin in a way that helps develop strong grammar and vocabulary. The text is based on the classical Latin texts (i.e. Cicero, Seneca, Caesar, Terence, etc.) While Wheelock offers all the necessary rules of grammar and syntax, he does so in a way that is not boring, dry and dull. At the end of each chapter, there are exercises for the students to practice what they have learned not only in that chapter but also in what they have learned up to that point; and repetition is crucial to the beginning student of any language. Moreover, the back of the text includes a series of wonderful and helpful section from an appendix on prefixes and suffixes, etymological aids, summary of forms, and supplementary syntax. Furthermore, there is an English-Latin vocabulary listing of all the vocabulary that is covered in the text. This is one of, if not the, best beginning Latin texts available.
Rating: 
Summary: The best--and cheapest--option
Review: I've read the critical reviews of Wheelock, and I must say I'm bemused. This book has survived for so many years, and in so many editions, because it is a straightforward, clear, precise introduction to ancient Latin--period. Let the historians teach the history and culture of Rome: students in Latin I and II will not have the time or patience for watered-down lessons with colour pictures anyway.I have taught with this book, been taught by this book, and recommended it to others who then taught themselves with this book. It works. And there are numerous online resources, created by faculty around the world, which can be used to supplement the text. No other text has such a wide user base to draw upon. I'd have given it five stars if the most recent edition hadn't added the "Latin est gaudium--et utilis!" section, which I find silly and distracting.
Rating:
Summary: One of the better foreign language texts I own
Review: Several reviewers have attacked this text for using shortened versions of latin text, which is exceedingly unfair. This is an introductory text, and as such, accomodations must be made rather than using the entire text out of some elitist notion(as a parallel, how many children know the real nursery rhymes?). Also, the physical quality of the book has been assailed, which I see as baseless and without merit; its just as quality as any other paperback book. The text itself is straightforward, and fairly easy to read. Little time is wasted on cultural issues, which to be honest, I find refreshing (I study ancient history and find it implausible that a book purporting to teach latin could also do a half-way plausible presentation of the attached cultures and periods). Overall, a good text.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best Latin book by a long shot.
Review: I realize Wheelock's 44 year old book is in its various editions the most popular Latin text in college. It is hideous to use to learn how to read Latin. The readings are dreadful adaptations of real Latin and the new edition has notes by LaFleur whose juvenile attempts at humour add absolutely nothing to the text. The fifth edition was necessary since the fourth was riddled with misprints. The book is ugly, and will be dogeared by the end of a week. There are far better Latin texts out there.
Rating: 
Summary: A good choice, but not the best
Review: Since the first edition of Wheelock's Latin appeared in 1956, it has been the textbook of choice at many US colleges. According to a survey done by the American Philological Association a couple of years back, about 50% of all departments responding used the third edition of this textbook, whereas Moreland and Fleischer, the second most popular textbook, was used by only 8%. The book offers an introduction to Latin grammar and the technical terms used to describe language that is easy to understand even for absolute beginners. I also like that the book provides macrons and stress marks for every Latin word and insists on loud reading with the correct pronounciation which will make life much easier for students should they ever come to study Latin poetry in the original. Whether this textbook is the best introduction to Latin imaginable, however, is a matter of debate. A lot of instructors assign Wheelock's Latin with considerable hesitation. Especially in the beginning chapters, the book doesn't really offer the "real" Latin that it promises. Except in the case of short proverbs, all the sentences taken from, e.g., Cicero, Horace, and Seneca have been shortened and simplified to such a degree that I find it hard to call them "real Latin". In order to reach these completely unconnected snippets of text, one has to work his/her way through a list of 25 new words, only to discover that one is unable to translate about half of the practice sentences without further vocabulary help although some of them don't consist of more than two or three words. Nevertheless, Professor Lafleur improved Wheelock's original course considerably. He not only removed sexist sentences like "the glory of girls was and is and will always be their beauty" (formerly ch. 6) but also by adding more reading passages. Again, these are based on ancient texts but offer only a very distorted view of the original. I wonder if it doesn't do a disservice to students to present Horace and Catullus to them in this mutilated fashion. The poets themselves, I'm sure, are rotating in their graves whenever somebody reads the freely adapted prose versions of their poems in chapters 2 and 4. In addition, these reading passages are still considerably too short to give students enough practice in reading and translation. For this reason, many instructors assign Groton and May's "38 Latin Stories" in addition to Wheelock's textbook. Finally, the book doesn't offer any illustrations. It leaves it up to the instructor to try to make Rome and its culture come alive by supplying background material and visual input. Other textbooks offer (sometimes even colored) pictures that give students an idea of what a <i>Roman<i\> house looked like (as opposed to their own) etc. At the same time, these illustrations often go with the reading passages and allow students to develop valuable pre-reading strategies by deducing as much as possible about the content of a passage from the picture and the words they already know. These pre-reading strategies will come in handy when they tackle real Latin literature later on. In sum, Wheelock's Latin is a textbook that has worked for many people. How many of them really went beyond mere translating to <i>reading<i\> and appreciating Latin literature is another question. Some obviously did, but it seems to me that they managed to do this despite the outdated pedagogical method of the book, not because of it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Text
Review: This is the best text I have used to learn any language, whether it is French, Russian, or Greek. You can practically teach yourself with this text. Well worth the nominal price.
Rating:
Summary: Hic liber optimus est.
Review: I am a student of languages at Georgetown University, and I started learning Latin in my spare time for a research project, but I found much more than a good grammer reference in Wheelock's Latin Grammar, I found the ancient passages timeless in their content and relevence to a moral life even on the eve of the 21st century. I was even a bit sad to learn in chapter 11, that Cicero was decapitated his thoughts about friendship, war, and statemanship in themselves make Latin worth learning.
Rating:
Summary: A fine textbook leading toward "real" Latin
Review: I have used this text since 1984 in teaching first-year Latin to my college students. It prepared them well for intermediate, and some have even gone to Vergil, Horace and medieval Latin beyond it.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and fully thought through.
Review: This particular latin book is different from others in that it allows the reader to learn a new chapter which covers specific and clearly explained gammar rules as well as new vocabulary words with definations on the side. I was very impressed and learned a lot of Latin, probably more than I would with another book. Compliments to the Author!!!
Rating:
Summary: Although not flawless this book is helpful
Review: This book is helpful in learning Latin basics, but starts to become confusing in the latter chapters. An adequate amount of time has to be invested in the book else it will not be helpful in the least. The summaries and dictionary in the back are two features which are very helpful.
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