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G**E
A Great Help For An Inexperienced Latin Reader
I have taken 8 hours of college Latin, and have spent about 30 minutes a day reading for pleasure for most of the past year. I saw on youtube first, then read online somewhere Catullus 101, a beautiful and moving poem to the authors dead brother. It was so powerful, I decided to get this as my first truly serious Latin work (have a handful of the intermediate works, like "The Romans Speak For Themselves", and a selection of Caesars Commentaries that is heavily supported by English translations.)Understand, Catullus in general is still beyond my abilities to read with facility. It takes a great deal of work for me at my level to grapple with Catullus' generally short poems.However, I was greatly motivated to try, after hearing and reading Catullus 101, and I looked for some work that provided enough help for someone my level (2 strong semesters of college Latin + an intense interest). This reprint edition is it. I especially found the extensive help in the footnotes very useful to help my slogging. I still need a dictionary, and to check vocabulary online, but with the help of this edition much of Catullus is now open to me. It is exciting to read these poems and have a decent sense of what the poet was trying to say to us. Recommended
O**I
This is not the edition you're looking for
I was looking for the full edition with commentary by Thomson. When I "looked inside" the book it appeared to be that. But what showed up was a cheap xerox of just the Latin text, not the Latin text with voluminous commentary at the bottom of each page. Come on Amazon! This is not that book! There must be a different ISBN number.
O**I
This is a scam
Do not order the paperback version listed here. It is literally a photocopy of a heavily annotated edition, and it's not even the Loeb edition.
T**N
Different edition...
I read all of the reviews on Amazon, but they all seem to refer to different editions than the one advertised. There are dozens of editions of Catullus, including at least two by Goold--but these two editions have quite different purposes. The Loeb edition has parallel texts, Latin and English, but no commentary. The advertised volume (ISBN 0715617109) is heavier on commentary and notes. I would like to see a review that evaluates this edition and its author's interpretations and opinions. In the meantime, the reader should ignore my rating of this item, I really don't know how good it is--just that the editor does have a distinguished reputation.
A**E
Very useful, with a reservation
As stated above, this is a fine piece of scholarship and a good introduction to Catullus, with one caution worth mentioning : that being Goold's resurrection (which Goold later quite abandoned in his equally valuable Loeb edition of Catullus) of Theodor Bergk's nineteenth century emendation of the final lines of Catullus One -- an emendation that is (1) elegant, (2) seemingly plausible in that it "simplifies" the understanding of the content of Catullus One by removing a reference to a (likely Vestal) virgin, and (3) unnecessary, since there was an older Vestal Virgin in the immediate family of Catullus's great love figure Clodia = Lesbia (see Christian Settipani on her family).
R**R
Catullus reader
This is a Catullus reader with all of his poems. It's a "loab" with the Latin on one side and English on the other. It should be in every Latin teacher's personal library. This copy arrived on time and in excellent condition.
K**D
Two completely different books (!) that Amazon can't distinguish between (!!!)
*Thomson's* edition of Catullus is possibly the best available in English. I'm writing this review, however, simply to warn potential buyers. When you click on the "look inside" link here, you are shown the inside of an *entirely different book*. The book you see images of is a 2009 reprint of Merrill's late 19th-century edition (1895, I believe), published by "BiblioLife" a publisher that specializes in publishing out-of-copyright books. (Thomson's edition is, needless to say, still under copyright).Why Amazon would think that it is reasonable to show you images of an 1895 commentary on Catullus rather than the 2003 commentary that you're interested in is a question that I think has no answer. The text of Catullus in the two editions is probably similar; the content of the *commentary* -- which is to say, 4/5 of the book -- is completely different. This is something like showing you an edition of Shakespeare when you click to "look inside" an edition of Stoppard's _Shakespeare In Love._ Bonkers, Amazon, Bonkers.
S**S
Ancients In a Translation That is Alive Today
The Loeb Classical Library collects three poets of love together in one volume. First, Catullus is probably the most often studied poet of the group. The reading the poems and glancing across the page at the Latin original gives the reader a much stronger sense for how carefully crafted Catullus's verse is. The Loeb editon has been in circulation for about 90 years; however, it has recently been revised and reissued. Since Catullus was a little racy for the early 20th Century, many of his poems were translated into a very stilted form (or not translated at all). The new edition from Loeb corrects this and takes into account the 100 years of classical scholarship to produce a very authoratative and readable edition.Second, Tibullus presents an interesting case, because few if any of his poems can directly be attributed to him. This in and of itself may not merit much attention -- particularly after reading the textual introduction which described just how torured a path classical texts have walked in coming down to us today. The poems about Sulpicia are the real interest here in that they may be written by her.Finally, Tiberianus's Pervigilium Veneris attracts attention because it suggests the move away from classical poetry to Medieval forms.The Loeb edition is well crafted with sewn binding and acid-free paper. These poets have survived 2000 years, and the Loeb edition is sure to be valued for generations.
R**A
Raw and haunting
Catullus, writing in the Rome of Julius Caesar and Cicero, is probably one of the most accessible of classical poets: his searing, emotionally raw and haunting Lesbia poems, especially, seem to inscribe the very nature of sexual obsession on the page.But he is worth reading for the 'long' poems too, the extraordinary Attis poem (poem 63) and the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis (poem 64)which has such an impact on the Renaissance erotic epyllion.In line with the other Loebs, this translates the poems into plain text, but it is impossible to convey the spiky texture of Catullus' original Latin.If you have any Latin it's worth investing in this Loeb edition (Catullus' Latin in the love lyrics is pretty easy, probably about 'A' level standard, but the longer poems (c.63 and c.64) are difficult). But if not or you want a taster without the high price then I would recommend the Guy Lee Oxford World Classics translation which is much better than the Penguin looser translation.
C**J
Disappointing edition
This book is an American reprint of the scans of an old copy of Catullus in Latin. Sadly some of the poems have been missed. I would not recommend it.
C**N
Brief Review of the Loeb Catullus
I purchased this edition to aid with my university level Latin class, as we were working with Catullus.The nice thing about the book is that many of the poems are short and concise, so comparing the English to the Latin can be quite simple at times, even if still a bit tricky since it is poetry.Some of the poems are among the most famous Latin love poems ever written, and I would strongly recommend this book for any lover of highly refined poetry or for those who wish to continue fine-tuning their Latin skills.
P**O
ottimo commento
il miglior commento recente a Catullo, insieme a una seria edizione critica. Non può mancare nella biblioteca di qualunque classicista. Experto credite
U**N
very valuable
Modern edition with good critical apparatus. Extensive commentary with general introduction to each poem + comments on each line. More basic explanation of difficult sentences would be nice (especially for teaching), but information in terms of historical, cultural, literary background abounds. Definitely huge progress from older commentaries like Kroll and Syndikus.
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