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Rating: 
Summary: An Indispensable Pedagogical Tool
Review: I am currently working on a Master's degree in Classics, and I have been studying Latin formally for over three years. Pedagogy is now my concern. I am interested in tools that will help others to learn Latin in an expedient and enjoyable manner. I now think that THE tool to use in helping students learn Latin is George Sharpley's "Essential Latin." Sharpley's work contains a plethora of Latin texts from a diverse number of Latin writers. He has an answer key in the back of the book, and plenty of paradigms and pictures to assist the new student of Latin. The cultural sections are also invaluable, as is the pronunciation guide. In short, Sharpley's inductive approach is refreshing and effective. I strongly recommend this book as a pedagogical tool!
Rating:
Summary: entertaining and well organized
Review: I picked up this book to relearn the Latin I'd forgotten since high school. I chose it because of it's clear organization, and the way it moves quickly into the material. After using the book I came to appreciate the essays on Roman culture, and the sections of original source material to translate. Reading some original material made studying Latin really interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, But Generally Not for Complete Beginners Who Are Adult
Review: In trying to please all comers (as per its introduction), it seems to become the proverbial "jack of all trades and master of none". I do very much like this book, but many adults seem to favor a more analytic approach, so "complete" beginners will probably be confused by its "'natural language'-esque" pedagogy of introducing new material without sufficient in-depth commentary, if any at all, initially. This book is probably better as a review for second-year Latin students...I am a complete beginner, but luckily I am not relying totally on this one book (I find it best to consult a wide variety of sources: currently I am also using "Latin via Ovid", "Learn Latin" [by Peter Jones], and, of course, Wheelock). I do very much like the fact that it has a complete answer key in the back, and a nice variety of exercises, if still too short for my tastes. It has a lot of mostly original Latin, with translations, to work with, and these original texts are arranged topically, almost always segueing seamlessly into each other: it's really interesting to read of the ancients' own views on their society and its wars and myths and very life. The bottom line is that I whole-heartedly recommend it, but just not as a sole source, or only for those with some prior knowledge of Latin.
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