Greece Books

I first saw this beautiful poster framed, hanging outside a restaurant bathroom as I waited in line. I began reading and became so engrossed following the paths of lineage and interconnections of myths I have savored since childhood that I allowed three people to go ahead of me as I continued to study the chart. I was so happy to find it available on amazon at a very reasonable price. My own copy now hangs in a prominent place in my high school English classroom, and just like it drew me in to study, I now happily see that it holds the same power over so many of my students.

I first saw this chart on my Greek professor's wall and was stunned by it. So much information, and very clear diagrams indicating the relationships of all the gods. This is a must for any mythology enthusiast.

Word Ninja

This book is simple to read and fun! If you need Greek Myths for refrence, this is the book! It is one of the best. It is also a book for all ages. My two sons thought the book was great! And so do I! From a big Fan of Amazon, Jeanie L.

This enormous Wall Chart is a "Must Have" for any scholar of classical literature and mythology, as well as anyone who just loves reading Classical Myths and stories of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The artwork is superb, as are the detailed references and "nexi" that are drawn between the various figures of Classical Mythology--both famous and not so well known! The visual impact of this Wall Chart allows one to understand that complex system of mythology and beliefs that described the world of the Ancients. This is the best Wall Chart of any kind that has been created on any subject both Ancient and Modern. If you wish to hang it in an open space, just ensure that you have a suitable and sizable wall on which to place this wonderful chart.

I was not disappointed by this wallchart in the least. It has so much information, and really presents the relationships among gods, humans and other beings very well. These relationships are so intertwined and tangled that I doubted whether they could be clearly presented. This chart does. (Now if only the type were just a little larger.)

Best travel guide bar none. Fits your pocket or small purse.. Visually great looking. There are actual pictures .... All high recommended hotels different prices..Great maps.. hard to get lost . Great recommends for food I am a shopper.. Absolutely great & unusual shops ..None of the bad tourist gear only the styling gear.. .I am familiar w/ New York but I still use this guide. This is the one I get around with...I do not go anywhere without this guide if there is one available for the destination Im will be traveling to....

This is the most ergonomically designed useful city guide I've seen.
100 percent portable, no batteries, internet connection and user friendly.

I have bought several editions of this handy little guide over the years and am now giving one to all the guests at my daughter's New York wedding. It is very easy to use and has great suggestions for dining, sight-seeing etc. with very simple sections for each area of the city. I call it my New York bible.

I went to New York for the first time for two weeks. This map is great. It's small, easy to carry, and easy to read. You won't feel so obvious if you have to pull it out on the street corner or on the subway. It was so much better than the full size map that I got from the hotel. Beware, it only covers Manhattan. So if you have to travel to the outer boroughs (Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Queens) you'll need a different map. However, since all the siteseeing, shopping, and eating I wanted to do was located in Manhattan, it was the only map I needed.

The first time I went to New York, my mom bought this for our trip. It's been a life saver since. The maps are very detailed but small enough to carry with you without looking obnoxious. The subway map is detailed as well and when you use them with your sectioned maps, it completes the whole picture. This is a must have especially for first time visitors as the maps are very easy to read. I'm going on my third trip in two months and had to pick up another copy of this, as I can't seem to find my older one. I couldn't imagine a trip to NYC without it!

Although it's a very good translation, I prefer to read the books of Plutarchos in the original Greek texts because the version of Dryden is now somewhat obsolete. And if you don't understand the ancient Greek language well, I recommend you to read several volumes of Plutarch in THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY.

I have now plowed through the second and final volume of this series, and though my energy began to flag, I still think this is one of the great classics of all time. Though not exactly chronological, the stories in this volume tend to occur later than in the first volume and are often longer, which is understandable given that Julius Caesar and Alex the Great are covered in this volume. THe stories are also more intricately interwoven - you get lives that overlap, such as those of Brutus and Caesar, with slightly different takes and details in each one. The upshot of all this is that the serious reader will need to keep this around as a reference, going over the text again when some question of detail comes up or to refresh one's point of view. Plutarch's take on things is very different from that of many authors: he is a pro-aristocrat conservative and admiring of martial prowess, yet pro-Republican. Once again, the reader really needs to know the historical context before undertaking this. It is not at all introductory.

Warmly recommended. Though it takes real effort at times to continue, it is well worth the slog.

A most concise volume of all the most important people of the Roman Empire.

Plutarch's parallel lives, parallels the life of a great Greek with a great Roman. Theseus and Romulus, Demosthenes and Cicero, Alexander and Ceasar. There are forty- six such pairs which tell not only the story of the individuals but of their society . Plutarch brings to bear his tremendous learning from a wide variety of sources . Plutarch's first interest is in the character of the people he writes about, and the moral lessons he can draw from comparison of the lives. His work has had great influence and provided inspiration and material to Shakespeare, Montaigne, Browning and others. The reading of the work is not always easy, and there are strange and questionably credible tales and details but the work is humanly alive. The reading and studying of it was once considered a basic part of true humanistic education, and not the confine of a few scholars in the classic departments of universities. It once had broad reader appeal and anyone with a keen interest in biography, and the subject of how lives have been lived in worlds far from our own, would do well if not to read this work cover- to- cover than at very least have a good read in it.

Twain's pejorative definition of `classic' need not apply. I define classic as that (text) which speaks to the heart over an extended duration - perhaps for several generations, as in `classic rock', or several millennia, as in Plutarch's "Lives". I probably never would have read Plutarch, were it not for a glorious discovery of Montaigne in mid-life. Having acquired enough distaste for the copious demands required to master classical languages after five years of Latin in secondary school, I made an arbitrary and direly misguided vow to eschew all Classics courses at the university level. And thus again is revealed the fateful difference between post-modern (post-1945), and the modern (c. 1500 - August 5, 1945) pedagogy, of which I unwittingly, if serendipitously, caught the tail end. The modern cannon required thorough immersion in the classics, and, for many years, Plutarch was required reading in the best schools, and should be even now. The author of the Shakespearian plays came to Plutarch by way of Montaigne (and likely read the Amyot translation, and only later the North, if at all), and the English schools came to Plutarch by way of Shakespeare. We might say that the revival of Plutarch was one of the most far reaching achievements of the Northern Renaissance.
At one point in his celebrated chronicle of the self, Montaigne (as a shaper and bona fide member of that cannon, guardian of some of what is best in our cultural inheritance) amusedly reveals that, when his critics believe they are attacking his work, they are actually attacking Plutarch and/or Seneca, so profound is their presence in his writing, and, in his "Defense of Plutarch and Seneca", he declares that . . . "my book [is] built up purely from their spoils".

And what a book it is! But Plutarch's magnum (see the 14 volumes of the Loeb Classical Library for his other works), is the greater. Montaigne is one of the great students of the self. Plutarch is the first (and may yet still be the definitive) historian of virtue. Montaigne, in scrutiny of his own nature, seeks to recognize the limitations and potentials of the self, and thereby sketch our general spiritual contours. Plutarch, in an unparalleled series of real life, historically and culturally pivotal, examples, shows us what they are.

The book records in the most remarkably intimate style (Plutarch has few peers as a master of narrative and an uncanny ability to ferret out of detail the significance of individual actions as a unified whole), the major events in the lives of the most impacting figures of the ancient world. Therefore, like the best novels, the book forms a world in itself, a lost world, the world of our ancestors, through a landscape drawn of actions and consequences. The structure of the book is such that an account of the seminal moments in the life of a noble Greek and then of a noble Roman are brought forth in pairs, followed by a comparison. In some sections of the work these comparisons are absent. They appear at some point in antiquity to have either been lost to or removed from the text, which would seem to explain why, for instance, there is no comparison of Alexander and Caesar. But the comparisons are brilliant, and eminently instructive.

Of course, from the details alone, we may draw our own inferences. Alexander, as a mere teen, leading his troops in hand-to-hand combat, won his first battle fighting uphill at night. Caesar, a heavy drinker, was wont to ride horseback at full tilt with his hands clenched behind his back. He had a life-long passion for Cato's sister and it is said that from their relationship, which continued through their respective marriages, Brutus was born. Et tu? Of course, one cannot fail to mention, even in this briefest review of the abundantly rich description in the nearly 1,300 pages which comprise the book, the death of Cato the Younger - one of the most exquisitely drawn figures in the book. Hunted down with the remnants of his troops into the wastelands of Carthage by the army of Octavius Ceasar in an effort to snuff out the last vestiges of republican resistance and opposition to Empire, realizing that the last realistic hope for freedom is lost, Cato attempts ritual suicide (a Stoic custom common to Roman nobility) by disembowelment. As Plutarch describes the scene, ". . . he did not immediately die of the wound; but struggling, fell off the bed, and throwing down a little mathematical table that stood by, made such a noise that the servants, hearing it, cried out. And immediately his son and all his friends came into the chamber, where, seeing him lie weltering in his own blood, great part of his bowels out of his body, but himself still alive and able to look at them, they all stood in horror. The physician went to him, and would have put in his bowels, which were not pierced, and sewed up the wound; but Cato, recovering himself, and understanding the intention, thrust away the physician, plucked out his own bowels, and tearing open the wound, immediately expired." In Seneca's words: "For Cato could not outlive freedom, nor would freedom outlive Cato."

However, the life most appropriate for the contemporary reader, I feel (and wish that every member of the shadowy corporate/military junta that seems to be ruling us these days would read and take to heart) is the life of Crassus. Crassus was the most successful businessman in the history of the Roman Empire. Plutarch relates that at one time he owned virtually one-third of the real estate in Rome. However, such mind-boggling success was not enough for him. His yen, and later, obsession, was to be revered as a great military leader, a world conqueror, expand the domain of the already burgeoning Empire, and the object of his fantasies was the area of the world at that time known as Mesopotamia and Persia, today as Iraq and Iran. We follow as he makes extensive preparations, investing his own fortune and a great deal of the nation's wealth into outfitting an army for the venture. And at first, the invasion of Mesopotamia seems to go well. But the centers of population are spread out over great stretches of desert, and the occupation never really succeeds, because a central authority cannot be solidly established. Crassus, however, remains undaunted, even though the troops are becoming mutinous as supplies begin to run thin. Led on by treacherous advisors, he enters Parthia (somewhere in the vicinity of modern day Syria). Plutarch describes the grueling denouement with his usual detachment, aplomb, and gifted eye for pertinent detail. Having lost the greatest fortune in the world, he proceeds to lose his troops, then his sons, and finally his life. These lessons are never too late for the learning, and my apologies to Twain, but a classic is a text which retains its urgency to be read, and read now.

I read the Dryden/Clough translation. Dryden was never my favorite writer of his period, the late 17th century - hardly a match for Burton or Milton, in my opinion, but he was poet laureate, and this work I love - his English is fine, and resonates with classic dignity. Clough, the mid-nineteenth century British scholar who revised the translation, befriended Emerson when he traveled to England, and became a sort of mentor to the New England Transcendentalists in general. We can be grateful for such a wonderful rendering for one of the very greatest and edifying masterpieces.

Robert D Kaplan's latest book, "Mediterranean Winter: The Pleasures of History and Landscape in Tunisia, Sicily, Dalmatia, and Greece," is written in the tradition of what was known in the 1930's as "landscape companions." The most well-known practitioners of this lost art were Robert Byron, David Talbot Rice, Lawrence Durrell, and Patrick Leigh Fermor.(They were all children of the British Empire.) This book recounts a journey Kaplan took shortly afer graduating from college in the mid 1970's. Kaplan writes: "With this journey, I acquired the habit of searching books linked to landscapes and seascapes through which I traveled. Reading became surgery; a way of dissecting the surrounding landscape and may own motivations for being there."

This is not the tourism of our present age, which is an escape from the drudgery of work; this is travel as work. Every landscape, every ruin suggests a book or an author. Every train trip or boat ride fills another notebook with observations and reflections. Travel teaches us about history - the rise and fall of civilizations, the ebb and flow of empires.

Kaplan's prose is on overdrive when travels through northern Tunisia. He recalls on a bus trip: "...the sculpted, liver-hued steppe of northern Tunisia and the pinks of the southern deserts, with their vast blotches of salt; interior tablelands racked by lonely, bone-chilling winds and the grave, museum light of late afternoons; the smoking and hacking coughs of the other passengers wrapped like ghosts in their caftans in the pre-dawn darkness, drooping woolen sleeves concealing their hands; the comforting smell of tea, fresh bread, sharp cheese, and harissa at half-empty cafes where the bus stopped after sunrise, with their loud music, scabby walls, and bitter espresso served in whiskey glasses only a third full; the just-boiled eggs that would keep my hands warm in the bus, bought at a cafe or given to me by a friendly passenger with whom I might share may sunflower seeds."

Kaplan has said elsewhere that waited until middle age to write this book in order to avoid the purple prose of youth; however, there are some delightful moments of recidivism.

In Tunisia, Kaplan uncovers the layers of history of this north African country, focusing mainly on the Carthaginian era and the subsequent conquest by Rome. Rome is still everywhere present in the landscape of Tunisia, from the roads and aqueducts to the Colosseum at El Djem, and Kaplan illustrates this vividly.

Also fascinating is his journey through Sicily. In Sicily, he sees the legacy of the Crusades. In the 1100's, two brothers from Normandy, Robert and Roger of Hauteville, conquered Moslem Sicily and created a modern multicultural state, in which Normans, Latins, Greeks, and Arabs could live together and prosper. The historian John Julius Norwich describes this era in depth in "The Kingdom in the Sun."

Kaplan then travels to Tivoli, east of Rome, where he explores Hadrian's Villa. "Hadrian's Villa was the Versailles of the ancient world." This was the subject of Eleanor Clark's 1950 book, "Rome and a Villa." To his villa, Hadrian brought thousands of books, statues, and reconstructed landscapes to remind him of all the cherished moments of his past. Kaplan compares him to Jefferson and his Monticello.

After leaving Tivoli, Kaplan sails to Split on the Dalmatian coast. Here he ponders the life and times of the emperor Diocletian, while walking through his palace: "If Hadrian was a romantic aesthete who encouraged the arts, Diocletian who ruled the Roman Empire 150 years after him, was a nuts-and-bolts pragmatist who spent most of his life in military camps." Diocletian was the first Roman emperor to rule the empire from the Balkans. It was not long until Rome was sacked in 476 and the Balkans were annexed by Justinian to the Byzantine Empire. After Byzantium, there were invasions by the Slavs and the Turks. Kaplan is very good when describing the mixture of people and civilizations that inhabit this part of the world; it was the subject of one of his previous books, "Balkan Ghosts."

The book ends with an entertaining visit to a spry 88-year-old Patrick Leigh Fermor, a fellow literary traveler and adventurer, living on the Peloponnesian Peninsula. "The last pascha of the Mediterranean" was working on the third volume of his memoirs of a journey on foot from the Hook of Holland to what is now Istanbul. We can only hope that Kaplan is still traveling and writing when he reaches this stage of life's journey.

This is travel writing the way it was meant to be - Informative, concise and illuminating.

Kaplan relives his journeys from many years ago as he first travelled through the Mediterranean struggling with being a free-lance writer. Most of the book is recollections from more than 20 years ago although there are comments from recent trips back to some of the locations and a wonderful recent interview with Patrick Leigh Fermor, author of A Time of Gifts, and other well-known travel books.

The down-side of reporting on these decades-old journeys is that some of the spontaneity and opinion is lost. I find that sometimes I learn more from disagreeing with a travel writers' hasty opinion than in boring, well-edited neutral reporting. However, in this case, I think that the elapsed time has given this account nuances and a filtered content that add to the writing. It's as if the ensuing decades have concentrated the meaning and subtleties of the journey.

The part on Tunisia was replete with history of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Berbers, and Carthaginians. Sicily was filled with the Greek influences on this place. Dalmatia, in previous Yugoslavia, and Greece were well-represented.

I confess I particularly enjoyed the recent encouter with Patrick Leigh Fermor who in his 80's is working on the last book of the trilogy about his travels in the 30's on foot from Holland to Constantinople. If you haven't read his first two, you need to.

Kaplan also includes a list of books that he considers essential to understanding these regions. It is excellent and is a good start to understanding these areas in depth.

Overall, excellent and gripping - which is hard in travel writing.

Impressions are akin to the distillates of grape rinds which when aged in the charred barrel of time yield the fine cognac of memories that become smoother and more satisfying with age. Mediterranean Winter is not an account of a recent journey or the nostalgic pining for youth but rather the mature reflections of a man whose impressions of a lifetime of world travel have been aged in the in the cask of the mind. Kaplan’s work is a delicate blend of autobiography, travel, philosophy, and above all, history. Like a fine cognac it is smooth, delicious, and relaxing.

The book commences with his very first journey, wanderings through Tunisia. My wife and I had the pleasure of traveling there in the mid 1990’s. His descriptions of Tebersouk rekindled my memories of that town in an early spring, a meal of runny eggs with fresh French bread, the quaintness of the village, and the heartfelt “Bon Jour” expressed by the school children. I still savor that crisp morning in the ancient Roman amphitheatre at Douga gazing in awe at the emerald green fields in the valley below and listening to the mellifluous exhaust tone of a moped as it serpentined the narrow road. I recollect gazing out our train window en route to El Djem and the sudden appearance of the Roman Colosseum replete with all its ancient glory. Sitting in the stands under the brazen Mediterranean sun it took but little imagination to hear the clanging of metal on metal and the roar of the crowds. But most of all, I shall never forget the warmth and kindness of the Tunisians themselves.

While Tunis brings back delicious memories his discussions of Sicily, Greece, and Dubrovnik elicit longings to visit these places so rich in history. I visited Athens, and like Kaplan who intended on staying but a few days remained eight years, I also, could have remained years. My wife too was seduced by Athens’ charm as an immigrant traveling from Eastern Europe to the United Stated. She remained captive to its charms for nine months. To this day she refers to Athens as ‘home’. Her final wish is that her ashes be scattered at Placa in Athens.

Kaplan imbues his travels with history. We are its products and what better ways can we understand ourselves than through history and what better way to understand history than to stand on its consecrated sacred soil. I found his historical discussions of such places as Sicily, Dubrovnik, and the southern Peloponnesus both intriguing and delightful. Perhaps most interesting of all was the reoccurring motif of the difference between the Byzantine and the Western ethos. Byzantine geography is so close and our history so intertwined but yet our consciousness is so divided. This is best exemplified by his encounter with the Russian seminary students in the Peloponnesus.

The best chapter is the last chapter entitled “The Last Pasha of the Mediterranean”. In it he chronicles a visit to a most amazing man, one who journeyed from his England to Istanbul on foot! Patrick Leigh Fermor is an erudite man in the twilight of his life. His villa in the remote southern outpost of Kardamyli in the Peloponnesus is a panoply of a lifetime of learning. Rooms are piled high with antique volumes of books, back issues of journals and magazines, artifacts, and maps. His most prized possession is the 1910 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica – “the last good one” which he keeps in the dinning room because as he puts it: “You should always have good reference works where you dine. The best sort of arguments start over dinner, and you must have the means available to settle them.” Here is a man who lived his life in conformity to David Hume’s dictum that the “two pleasures in life are study and society.” It is refreshing to know that there are men like Robert Kaplan who are heirs to the mantel of Patrick Leigh Fermor.

Kaplan made explicit what I knew implicitly that “divinity exists in beautiful memories” and the reason I travel is because “so much of commonplace existence is forgotten, while our journeys never are.”

As in "Balkan Ghosts," Kaplan writes with great clarity and intelligence, weaving a fine travel narrative founded on extensive historical research. He writes with a unique and creative eye, and tends to focus on important yet little-known locales. He philosophizes quite a bit, but it is an intriguing, pleasurable philosophy. The following quote from his section on Greece crystallizes for me the special appeal of this type of writing, "...travel writing, rather than a low-rent occupation for the Sunday supplements, could also be a means to explore art, history, literature, and statecraft..." Precisely! Bravo, Kaplan!

Reviewed by David Lundberg, author of Olympic Wandering: Time Travel Through Greece

This historical essay by Kaplan which flows along a geographic journey from North Africa, to Sicily, Italy, Croatia, and Greece is a great read for anyone interested in the history of the Mediterranean. The book is part travelogue, part history, and part philosophy. The key test I have with this type of writing is whether the book leaves the reader with a nice roadmap for further in-depth exploration of the subject matter or some nice sideroads for further exploration...and this book gets five stars because it excels at just that. For example, I may be showing my ignorance but although I was aware of Lamb, and Byron, I had never heard of Fermor; although having read Norwich on Venice, I was ignorant of the Norman invasion of Sicily, etc. There is probably something like that for every reader who is not an expert in mediterranen history. It's easy to read, flows nicely, and worth one's time.

This book takes place in ancient Greece. It is about the life of a young boy named Nic who faces many dilemmas in life. He is sent away from Athens due to the plauge. He meets Gellius, a sailor who dreams to win the pankration someday. Then Nic is captured and sold as a slave. Gellius was not captured. This story tells about his search for a friend, and his struggle.I think that this was a great book. My friend thinks it was too convenient for Nic sometimes and a little unrealitic, but I loved it.
This book was exciting, and made you think about your life too. This book was a wonder to our class(as we read it aloud in class) I give this book five stars. It was a book of great pain, suffering, and happiness. I hope you all read this book.

The book takes place in Ancient Greece where Nic is fleeing from the plague in Athens and encounters danger. The pankration is an olympic event where people fight without weapons. This is one great book, but it was missing a little information about the charecters and about what happened after the pankration.

PANKRATION: THE ULTIMATE GAME reflects the ancient but brutal sport of Pankration combat. It had but one rule & everything else was allowed even fighting to the death and/or maiming one's rival. .... The rules of combat are defined in the book. The book has an intriguiing love story which causes two cadets to fight for the same woman both men desperately crave.

This was the most ammasing book I have ever read. It kept moving along and never got boring. One adventure leads to another. This is the best book I have read and it is pretty hard to beat. This book deserves 6 out of 5 stars!!

excellent! a great book for projects on greek olympics! Five-star book, Blacklock did an absolute thriller adventure ride.

A very informative book that tells really a lot about Macedonian king Philp the 2nd and the way he forced himself on the Greeks. There's not as much in there about his son, Alexander, but it was worthwhile anyway for anybody who wants to know about the wars of that time in ancient Greece. I highly recomend it.

This book is the best book I have seen about King Philip II for general readers. Several scholarly books that are available contain more information of course. But for those who want a simple, straightforward overview, this book is excellent. The book contains a good deal less on Alexander and seems to make the case that much of Alexander's later success was due to his father's considerable talents. Nice job all around.

Don Nardo, the leading classical historian in the U.S. young adult market, has turned out yet another fine piece of historical writing. Here, he approaches an often-done subject from a fresh viewpoint. Instead of focusing most of the time on Alexander and mentioning his father Philip in a mere few pages, as so many books of this kind tend to do, Nardo focuses most of the book on Philip and how in an amazingly short span of time he forged a nation out of petty competing factions in a Macedonia that was viewed by Athens and other leading Greek city-states at that time as a backward, uncultured place, and also how he created a formidable army, one that Alexander later used to conquer Persia with. I have read just about all of the important literature in this subject area, and Nardo's is the only non-scholarly study I know of that goes into Philip's life and exploits in such detail. The title of the book is a bit misleading, in that it could be construed by those who have not read the book to mean that the unity Philip and Alexander brought to Greece was complete and/or permanent; and I suspect that this was not Nardo's own title, but rather one imposed by the publisher. However, throughout the book, Nardo makes it very clear that said unity was only partial (Sparta and some other Greek states not taking part), impermanent, and also achieved by brute force, since the Macedonians marched into southern Greece and imposed their will on the residents. This is excellent, well-informed historical writing, of far better quality than some scholarly books I have seen, although admittedly couched in simple terms and language for its young audience.

Don Nardo, the leading classical historian in the U.S. young adult market, has turned out yet another fine piece of historical writing. Here, he approaches an often-done subject from a fresh viewpoint. Instead of focusing most of the time on Alexander and mentioning his father Philip in a mere few pages, as so many books of this kind tend to do, Nardo focuses most of the book on Philip and how in an amazingly short span of time he forged a nation out of petty competing factions in a Macedonia that was viewed by Athens and other leading Greek city-states at that time as a backward, uncultured place, and also how he created a formidable army, one that Alexander later used to conquer Persia with. I have read just about all of the important literature in this subject area, and Nardo's is the only non-scholarly study I know of that goes into Philip's life and exploits in such detail. The title of the book is a bit misleading, in that it could be construed by those who have not read the book to mean that the unity Philip and Alexander brought to Greece was complete and/or permanent; and I suspect that this was not Nardo's own title, but rather one imposed by the publisher. However, throughout the book, Nardo makes it very clear that said unity was only partial (Sparta and some other Greek states not taking part), impermanent, and also achieved by brute force, since the Macedonians marched into southern Greece and imposed their will on the residents. This is excellent, well-informed historical writing, of far better quality than some scholarly books I have seen, although admittedly couched in simple terms and language for its young audience.

The achivements and conquests of the Macedonian king Philip II are summarized in this highly informative volume. The author devotes most of the book to Philip, rather than his illustrius son, Alexander, which is Ok because there are plenty of books about Alexander out there already. It is really refreshing to find out how much of Alexnader's accomplishments were the result of his father's talent and achievements, which tend to get glossed over in a lot of books about Alexander. As one of the reviews above mentions, the author does a really nice job of working in actual quotes from ancient writers, which gives the book a strong feeling of authenticity.

The book is EXCELLENT by Catedra which analyzes the 'obra' in detail. Excellent book and great story by Rojas and his crtizers.

A classic Spanish literature story written in the Old Style Spanish by fernando De Rojas. Excellent reading and an excellent story with modern applications.

Celestina is amusing, ironic, and while the prose and dialogue is long and descriptive, it is never boring- I really enjoyed this play. A note to the person who claims to be the author: Celestina was written in 1499, and it is widely assumed the author lived circa the same time. So, congratultions on your 500th birthday. :)

Celestina is amusing, ironic, and while the prose and dialogue is long and descriptive, it is never boring- I really enjoyed this play.

Ante todo resulta incómodo ver valoradas con estrellitas (de 1 a 5) las obras maestras de la literatura universal.
La Celestina forma parte de esa veintena de obras maestras que forman lo más destacado de la literatura en cualquier idioma y de cualquier época. Sin lugar a dudas, la más fascinante, moderna, entretenida y asequible de su época. Una auténtica novela (dialogada) moderna.

Entre sus mejores momentos: la comida en casa de Celestina con los criados y prostitutas, el primer encuentro de Celestina y Melibea, Melibea esperando a Calixto en el jardín, y un final que te deja un nudo en la garganta. Ah!, y por supuesto la sabiduría popular de Celestina.

La comparación con Romeo and Juliet de Shakespeare no tiene sentido. Las dos obras son opuestas. Por otra parte no cabe duda de que La Celestina es muy superior (más compleja, densa, apasionada, humana, personajes más solidos y destacados...)

Cito a Riquer en su extraordinaria Historia de La Literatura Universal:

Cuando Calixto llega al jardín de Melibea por vez primera persiguiendo un halcón y queda herido por la belleza de la joven (escena de caza frecuente en las novelas cortesanas medievales, por ejemplo en el Cliges de Troyes), se levanta un vendaval que lo arrasará todo, lo bajo y lo elevado, el afecto más gratuito y la codicia más interesada. Y el lector tras tanta belleza, tantos primores, tanta poesía, tanto realismo y tras una tan bien conducida historia de unas almas en desasosiego, ve que la tragicomedia de Rojas, a pesar de su declarada intencion moralizadora, cae en el vacío, como Melibea al arrojarse de la torre, porque después de la muerte de los dos jóvenes Rojas sólo deja entrever un "infierno de enamorados"

This is one of the most incredible pieces of literature in human history, yet is one of the most often overlooked.
Plutarch is not as much a historian as he is a moralist, and it is his examination of the lives of some of the most important historical figures of the ancient world for their moral roots that is so incredibly engaging.
Oddly enough, I was first introduced to the works of Plutarch through the fictional novels of Louis L'Amour, who often has one charcter encouraging another to read various classical authors.
For a interesting peek at the lives and morals of some of history's most intriguing figures, Plutarch is a great place to begin.

First off, let me clarify that what follows is a review of a particular edition of Plutarch's Lives, the current (2001) edition from Modern Library Classics. It is not a review of the book itself and will not provide any information on the relevance of this wonderful classic or the many lives it includes or the ingenious structure of paralleling the lives of Greeks and Romans or the importance of this text to the history of biography. Several other reviews here do a fine job of that and I see no reason to cover the same ground. Moreover, I've noted rather a lot of confusion about this edition in reviews here on Amazon (see particularly the reviews associated with the hardbound Modern Library volumes). I am still researching the Dryden edition, but thought I might offer a few comments to provide clarity and a better understanding of this edition for those whose buying decisions are based on the nature and quality of a particular translation.

"The Dryden Translation" - this unusual phrasing (which appears on the cover) has become the traditional descriptor for this version of the Lives. In fact, Dryden is not, properly speaking, the translator of this book. In one article in Wikipedia he is described as an overseer for the edition and in another as editor-in-chief, but he is also described as having simply "lent" his name to the enterprise. I am still researching this, but I should not be surprised if Jacob Tonson, the publisher, was not more involved in editing than was Dryden. [Update: My research to date has been inconclusive on the full nature of Dryden's role in this undertaking, but none of the more detailed resources I have turned to suggest that Dryden actually participated in this book as a "translator." Very possibly, this is one of those many little facts of history that have gone unrecorded and for which we shall have to content ourselves with the conjecture of scholarly experts. What is most surprising, however, is how often Dryden is given as the translator of this volume in various less detailed references to the book. Encyclopedia Britannica, for example, has Dryden as the translator; Wikipedia, much to my surprise, does not -- and thus, arguably, the amateurs get it right over the professionals.]

Dryden's primary involvement in the project seems to have been his "Life of Plutarch" which is included in this edition only by way of a two short excerpts in Clough's Preface.

Arthur Hugh Clough's Preface and Revisions - Clough was a nineteenth century poet. Clough's preface was, for me, a major reason I became interested in the Modern Library edition. I found the preface quite intriguing. It is a solid piece of work from an individual who was neither a full time scholar, nor a particularly notable prose writer. In a couple of cases, the argument at the very beginning of the preface for example, he seems to drop his thoughts without fully completing them. But this is a minor problem in an otherwise well thought out and informative discussion of Plutarch and his book.

The text itself - One of the reviewers here on Amazon calls this Clough's "train wreck" assuming that the difficulties in the text must lie with Clough because, concludes the reviewer, Dryden is a much better prose writer. Few would doubt that Dryden was a better prose writer, but I strongly suspect that the translation in this case (not Dryden's as I have already pointed out) was aided by Clough's hand. I am having trouble getting a copy of the original (pre-Clough) "Dryden" translation, although I should very much like to do a comparison. Once Clough's version came out, publishers seem to have had no reason to go back to the original which provides at least some indication that Clough had resolved some of the problems with the text. As a result, the pure "Dryden" editions are older and more expensive.

I find the text quite readable. It is not a "modern" translation (I hate using the word "modern" here because I think of Clough as a modern, perhaps I should say it is not a twentieth or twenty-first century translation). This text is clearly more given to complex clausal structures than we would expect in a popular translation today. I think it more than has its merits. I'm not sure but that the complex clausal structures might not have their own virtue in a text like this. Certainly one of the interesting qualities in Plutarch is a kind of questioning of sources that the syntax of this edition brings out rather nicely. I say that, however, as a non-classicist with little or no Greek, so I cannot be sure whether it really does reflect the original.

Notes - My chief concern with the text would be that it lacks annotation or other textual apparatus beyond an index. This is particularly peculiar given that the cover states that it includes notes by Clough! I am trying to get my hands on an earlier edition of the Clough revision to see what it might contain in the way of notes. Nonetheless, I'm not quite sure what to make of the Modern Library advertising notes on the cover, but providing none. Until I know better what these notes might entail, I'm loath to make any judgment. [Update: I am currently in dialog with Random House trying to understand why they did not include the notes; I have frankly had to struggle to get them to understand that I am not referring to the notes in the Preface, but to notes to the main body of the text. Nonetheless, I am hopeful, that I will eventually get an understanding from them, and, perhaps, may be able to report here that future editions will either remove the erroneous "Notes" on the cover, or, even better, will include the missing "Notes." I have located an online copy with Clough's Notes. These appear to be rather thin by modern standards, perhaps one note to every three or four pages. Nonetheless, it would be nice to see them restored. Although, a more fully annotated version would be a very nice thing to see, indeed.]

Introduction by James Atlas - I wish I could speak more highly of the Modern Library introduction, but I am afraid I felt it was lacking on many levels. It fails in anyway to clarify the nature of the translation. One would think that it would at least contain some mention of the relevance of this particular text (why reprint it now?), of the curious assignment of Dryden's name as translator to a book that he did not translate, and of the role that Clough played as a nineteenth century editor of a seventeenth century text.

Additionally, and perhaps most warranting concern, Atlas's introduction covers such similar ground to Clough's Preface (even using many of the same quotations) that it feels rather curiously redundant.

The cover - I cannot close without commenting on the cover. It looks like wallpaper for a nineteenth century classicist's study. Quite honestly, I like it.

I've given the book four stars because I see no reason to visit the sins of this particular edition upon the text as a whole, and the text has plenty of merits both as a translation and as a classic of literature.

After having read McCullogh's splendid series on Rome, I turned to this fat, dense book with great expectations. I was not disappointed: the stories are endlessly fascinating, from their basic details on ancient history to the bizarre asides that reveal the pre-Christianised mind-set of the author.

Like all great books, this one can be read on innumerable levels. First, there is the moralising philosophy that is perhaps the principal purpose of the author to advance - each life holds lessons on proper conduct of great and notorious leaders alike. You get Caesar, Perikles, and Alcibiades, and scores of others who are compared and contrasted. Second, there is the content. Plutarch is an invaluable source of data for historians and the curious. Third, there is the reflection of religious and other beliefs of the 1C AD: oracles and omens are respected as are the classical gods. For example, while in Greece, Sulla is reported as having found a satyr, which he attempted unsuccesfully to question for its auguring abilities during his miltary campaign in Greece! It is a wonderful window into the mystery of life and human belief systems. That being said, Plutarch is skeptical of these occurances and both questions their relevance and shows how some shrewd leaders, like Sertorious with his white fawn in Spain, used them to great advantage.

Finally, this is a document that was used for nearly 2000 years in schools as a vital part of classical education - the well-bred person knew all these personalities and stories, which intimately informed their vocabulary and literary references until the beginning of the 20C. That in itself is a wonderful view into what was on people's minds and how they conceived things over the ages. As is well known, Plutarch is the principal source of many of Shakespeare's plays, such as Coriolanus and Julius Caesar. But it was also the source of the now obscure fascination with the rivalry of Marius and Sulla, as depicted in paintings and poetry that we still easily encounter if we are at all interested in art. Thus, this is essential reading for aspiring pedants (like me).

Of course, there are plenty of flaws in the work. It assumes an understanding of much historical detail, and the cases in which I lacked it hugely lessened my enjoyment. At over 320 years old, the translation is also dated and the prose somewhat stilted, and so it took me 300 pages to get used to it. Moreover, strictly speaking, there are many inaccuracies, of which the reader must beware.

Warmly recommended as a great and frequently entertaining historical document.

Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome. Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years. Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline. He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer. Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus". By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid. In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome. When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work. His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Plutarchs historic portrayals of the lives of the gretest men in BCE western history, is truly inspiring. From the passionate warrior kings Alexander the Great and Julius Ceasar to the Athenean states men Dion and Draco, the list goes on, each text providing an insight to lives that were lived to the fullest potential.

I loved this book! JC Villar is a wonderful writer; I felt as though I was right there with him to the extent that I could almost visualize some of the places he describes. He manages to impart a deep knowledge of the history and culture without being pedantic - he just casually slips it in. And his asides are hilarious! If you enjoy Bill Bryson, you'll love this book. Can't wait to read about more of JC Villar's travels and adventures.

The Seventh Wonder is part solid history book and part entertaining travel chronicle. This book details the author's expedition to rediscover the world's seven ancient wonders: the Colossus of Rhodes, the Tomb of King Mausolus, the Temple of Diana, the Statue of Zeus, The Great Pyramids, the Lighthouse of Pharos, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The author took a three week vacation to locate and stand at the original locations of each of these ancient masterpieces. Though all but The Great Pyramids stood in forgotten ruin, the author's only regret at the end of his trip was that due to the war in Iraq he could not visit and verify the seventh wonder, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The Seventh Wonder contained the perfect blend of background information about the purpose, construction, and stories surrounding each ancient wonder with the author's travel experiences while in Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. It's such a shame that structures that defined such hope, culture, and the life energy of so many peoples could crumble into disrepair, ruin, and the locations lost in time. Despite this, I think that an expedition to rediscover these sites would be an amazing journey. Until, I can book my own tour, The Seventh Wonder is a great alternative.

I actually went on the Egypt leg of the trip with the author, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well this book was written and how damn funny it is. Some of our misadventures on the trip made me so mad, the author and I did not speak for five years.

In any case, Juan mixes history with a generous slab of humor and sprinkles it liberally with his superb wit to produce a fantastic falafel of a travelogue. A few good stories were left out like the guy at the bazaar who begged us to buy two King Tut paperweights or his child would not get the kidney transplant. (feigned urgency is a common sales tactic). The GPS coordinates are a nice touch as are the cross references to relevant books to learn more about this topic or that.

This is certainly a book worth having just in case these seven wonders get blown to smithereens in the current WAR OF TERROR (oops, I mean war ON terror)... if things continue down the current path, we may never get to enjoy these wonders again. Oh well, it'll all be for a good cause. Like driving SUVs...

This is a thought provoking, educational, sacrilegious, hysterically funny, and practical travel guide. Or is it a study of historically significant architecture, the cultures that built it and the effect of those people and their construction on society thereafter, infused with GPS coordinates, cuisine commentary, bathroom humor and international pickup lines. I just finished reading the book twice in two days and cannot figure out if I was more entertained or enlightened. I'm motivated to trace the author's footsteps, avoid his pitfalls (literally), and capture the real life Indiana Jones experience of which the author wrote. Come to think about it, I did have that experience from my couch. The writing is first rate without being condescending. The book reads as fast and easy as a supermarket tabloid, which initially conceals the author's intelligence, the vast research that he must have done, and his knowledge of history. The author's fabulous sense of humor and insightful commentary on society and religion never make history books or travel guides, which therefore makes this book ultimately unclassifiable, with the exception of a great thought provoking book from which to simultaneously learn and laugh.

This is an engaging, well-written travel book. I loved all the details about the destinations,the history about the wonders and their links to contemporary society.

The research is superb and thorough; I loved the idea of including GPS coordinates.

I highly recomnend this book to travelers and history fans.

This book is much more than just a memoir about the author's life in Lindos on the Greek Island of Rhodes. It's more than just a collection of stories about the people whose paths he crossed. And it's more than an historical review how Lindos changed dramatically over the course of 35 years. The book is all those things, but what makes this book great is that it is, at it's core, an tale of adventure. By all accounts, Willard Manus has lived quite a remarkable life. He could have easily settled down in the US suburbs at any point along his journey (and this book is definitely about the journey of life). But instead Lindos kept calling to him, beckoning him to return. It's a story that will inspire anyone who has put his or her dreams on hold for whatever reason.

I think you'll get the most out of this book if you have actually visited the Greek Islands (perhaps Turkey too). Although I never went there until well after mass tourism had been embraced, I have experienced places that are as tranquil and unspoiled as the Lindos of the early 1960s as described by Manus, and also to places that have become as tacky and overcrowded as the Lindos of the late 1990s and beyond. It's a no-brainer for me to choose which I prefer, and I can only imagine what it must have been like for Manus to witness the profound changes that Lindos underwent.

But the point of the book is not to warn of the dangers of mass tourism or to criticize the way the people of Lindos responded to their newfound wealth. It is a wonderful lesson about the importance of following one's dreams and living the life that's waiting for you. And you can't top that.

The title itself explains a lot of the intentions of the author, which mainly consist of relating his experiences as an expatriate in the lovely town of Lindos on Rhodes Island.

What separates Willard Manus' book from others of the genre--such as The Island of the Second Vision by Albert Vigoleis Thelen, which relates Thelen's sometimes surreal experiences on Mallorca from the early '30s to the days of the Spanish civil war--is that Manus includes some juicy gossip about people who are in no way unknown, such as the Pink Floyd band, novelist Richard Hughes and film director Hans Geissendorfer.

The entire change the village, Greece and the world suffered from the early '60s to the late '80s can be experienced reading this book and this atmosphere of change can be felt chapter after chapter. The tone of the book subtly moves from the unencumbered times before the Greek dictatorship of the Junta to the wild times of flower power to the almost senseless times of the '80s .

Personally, I would have liked a less superficial way of dealing with the Greek folk culture and a cover that depicts a little more of the reality of the '90s in Lindos than the almost idyllic image from the late '70s. But this book makes a wonderful read!

Overall, I would say it is two thumbs up, and it is surely one of the few books that I have encountered that urged me to read it from cover to cover in one sitting.

- Alf B. Meier (This report first appeared in IslandMani...)

This book is witty, well-written and a joy to read. It accurately depicts both the joys and tribulations of living in Greece!! Buy a copy and head for any Greek island!!

Sandy Pappas

I bought the book whilst in Lindos in the summer of 2000, and i found it an entertaining, yet informative book about the village.

I had been to Lindos before and the stories in the book cease to amaze me, I know many of the characters personally and feel it is a great way to get to know the village better.

Overall it is a wonderful fusion, the characters set against the traditional Greek village life makes it a book for everyone, regardless of whether they have been to Lindos or not.

A candid insight into how Lindos on the island of Rhodes (Rhodos) grew to be what it is today.

The book is based on the experiences of the author over a 35-year association with Lindos, and provides marvellous detail of how a very typical, unspoilt Greek village became an icon for European mass tourism. But more than just a historical account, it provides a human element to the effects of change.

The characters and the interaction between the locals and the foreigners (some very famous) are described with great detail and sense of humour. Some of these encounters are quite outrageous and need to be read.

Willard Manus has included many personal details of the events that shaped the lives of himself and his family, and these are very touching at times.

The commentary relating to Greek and world events that occurred during the period covered by the book is written in such a way that it links these events with the lives of local people and close associates of the author.

Whilst entertaining, 'This Way to Paradise - Dancing on the Tables' is also touched by sadness both for the individuals described in the book and for the way that Lindos changed.

I first discovered the book on sale in Lindos Library (which bizarrely doubles up as a Laundromat!) during one of my many visits to the village. I found it fascinating and enjoyed reading every page.

If you have never visited Lindos then this book should wet your appetite. But if you are a regular visitor and have fallen in love with the place, the book should answer many of the questions that will have arisen in your mind.