Rating: 
Summary: Some critical remarks
Review: The dictionary is indeed perhaps the best book available in English which attempts to present mutual relations between the Chinese characters.The sole problem is that it is based on the first character dictionary compiled in the beginning of our era when the bone script characters were already lost. Without knowledge of the bone script a genealogy (or morphology) of the Chinese characters can not be consistent as the character shapes have changed between 700--200 B.C. much more than ever after. So I would call Harbaugh's dictionary a traditional genealogy not a systematic (or argumented) genealogy.
Rating: 
Summary: A genuine gem
Review: The more I use this book, the better I realize it is. The unique nature of Chinese, with its ideographic writing system, almost demands a separate etymology for the written word. That is precisely what this book provides. Particularly useful is the six-fold index that lets even a non-Mandarin student (I'm learning Cantonese) find what he's looking for. Plus, this book just plain makes fascinating browsing. Buy and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: extremely useful
Review: The traditional way of ordering Chinese characters is so woefully inadequate and antiquated. It is so much easier to find the character you want using this dictionary. The typography is very nice and easy on my eyes. The online version is a very handy supplement because you can click on any Chinese character in the entry and it will take you there (no more looking in the indices). Additionally the associated etymology tree is right there underneath (not on the next page or 3 pages back). Additionally for each character there is a link to the Cantonese pronunciation (.wav file) as well as various other dictionaries/db. If you need more words, I suggest complementing this book with the FarEast Books' Chinese-English dictionary (one version in traditional, another in simplied (with traditional characters listed for reference but referred to as "corrupt forms"), and several pocket-size versions (but you shouldn't need to consider those)). It has much more depth than any other Chinese-English dictionaries you normally find.
Rating: 
Summary: Not good if you want to learn all the characters
Review: There are approximately 7000 chinese character, but this book only have 4000 character in it. I wanted to learn all the character, therefore this book is no good.
Rating: 
Summary: A fairly good dictionary
Review: Things I like about this book: *Easy to use (the characters are referenced by Pinyin, radical index, stroke number, and Bopomofo; there is also a small English to Chinese index) *Fairly good definition (although the book will certainly not distinguish between words like dai jia and jia ge [the former does not mean monetary price, while the latter means monetary], the definitions are overall pretty good) *Somewhat comprehensive (the book isn't for the scholar, but for a student of Chinese it is fine; it has about 20,000 words, characters, and phrases) Things I don't like about the book: *Tiny print (although the main character is fairly large, the words list for that particular character is printed in TINY font; this book is certainly not for those with trouble seeing small print) *It emphasizes traditional characters (although I am a student learning simplified character and is perfectly fine with the book; the book is really more suited for those learning traditional characters) But if you want to buy a really good dictionary, however, try the Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary (ISBN 0195911512) and Xinhua Zidian (ISBN 7801031989).
Rating:
Summary: Great for searching and mnemonics; NOT accurate on origins
Review: This a decent book for finding characters you don't know, when you only know one part of them (not necessarily the dictionary classifier, often mis-termed ¡§radical¡¨). That is, when you see an inverted L with a 'bean' graph and a 'hand' graph under it, you can look up 'bean' (dou4) and find chu2 'kitchen'. It's also useful as a mnemonic device, breaking characters down into their parts to help you learn them. The innovative organization into family trees teaches you the graphic relationships between the modern forms of the characters. And it's got so many ways to look up characters, and is so small and portable, that it's worth buying. HOWEVER, the reader should be forewarned that many of the graphic relationships are spurious; they don't necessarily mean the characters originally had any relationship between them. The so-called ¡§etymologies¡¨(explanations of character origins) in it are often pure fantasy, either based on an out-of-date, 2000-year-old book, the Shuowen Jiezi, or even misreadings of Shuowen. In the 'bean' example above, the component in 'kitchen' (and in shu4 'vertical' and shu4 'tree') is not really dou4 'bean', but rather a variant form of zhu3 'to set a drum up on its stand', which Harbaugh indexes at 69/100. Another example of pure fantasy: entry 61/7 de5 'clear; accurate; of' is described as 'ladle out into the sunlight.' What the hell does that mean? Shuowen accurately says its semantic is ri4 'sun' and its phonetic is shao2 'ladle'. But they are not a hui4yi4 associative compound (aka logical aggregate) in which the meanings of the two components interact the way Harbaugh describes. Harbaugh unfortunately totally ignores the last hundred years' research based on oracle bones (Shang dynasty writings from ca 1300 BCE on turtle shells and livestock scapulae), which gives us a better picture of the true origins of the characters. For better etymology, turn to Xie Guanghui's fairly good and in-print Composition of Common Chinese Characters: An Illustrated Account (Peking (sic) University Press; ISBN 7-301-03329-x; 1997).
No disparagement of Harbaugh is intended; this is still a worthwhile purchase; just don't trust the etymologies.
Rating:
Summary: Very Strange
Review: This book contains word characters that in any other circumstance, would be contridicting. Many of the words displayed are not the same characters that many people were taught and trained to believe. But that doesn't mean that this book isn't right. It just mean it would interfere with other forms taught, in school or in any other facility.
Rating:
Summary: The best dictionary I've seen
Review: This book has everything I had been looking for in a compact dictionary, plus some. It is the easiest and most functional dictionary to use. If you are going to rely on one book to serve all your needs, this is it!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing book
Review: This book is amazing -- it cuts a clear and wide path through the cluttered, confused, and obstacle-laden road that learning Chinese characters can often be. This book enables the learner to fairly easily step back far enough to see the big picture of how the myriad characters -- and their individual graphical components, meanings, and prononciations -- are interrelated. There's a lot that can be learned in this process. It's fun to just look through its pages and follow the interconnections between related characters -- when you do this you're likely to learn at least a couple of new characters in the process. Useful, engrossing, and well designed reference book.
Rating:
Summary: A great addition to my collection
Review: This book is one of my favorite Christmas presents! I've been interested in Chinese language for a number of years, and particularly in the written language and its history. I'm certain my Chinese friends have gotten tired of my questions: How did this evolve, when did this enter the language, why, etc. Now I own a book that will help me solve some of the puzzles. Very interesting, accurate, and fun to explore.
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