I've always liked the Loeb editions for their original language text on the facing pages...but never wanted to invest due to the high prices of the originals and the spurious archaic translations.

But this little book I don't mind! It offers a great selection that never bores and gives me a chance to practice reading Latin and Greek...that with the price being right, It makes a great gift either for yourself or for a loved one!

This highly portable pocket sized selection of short examples of the treasures from this long established and priceless series of classical literature, The Loeb Classical Library is a unique literary hors-d'oeuvre.

Since Amazon still doesn't have a "Search Inside" option for this book, I am copying its contents below:

Homer (Odyssey), Hesiod (Works and Days), Pindar (Olympian Odes), Sophocles (Antigone), Euripides (Medea), Herodotus (Persian Wars), Thucydides (History of the Peloponnesian War), Aristophanes (Lysistrata), Xenophon (Anabasis), Plato (Phaedo), Aristotle (Poetics), Callimachus (Hymns), Josephus (Jewish War), Plutarch (Brutus), Lucian (Dialogues of the Gods), Pausanias (Description of Greece), Terence (The Brothers), Cicero (On Duties), Caesar (Gallic War), Lucretius (On the Nature of Things), Virgil (Aeneid), Horace (Odes), Livy (History of Rome), Propertius (Elegies), Ovid (Heroines), Manilius (Atronomica), Seneca (Octavia), Pliny (Natural History), Petronius (Satyricon), Pliny the Younger (Letters), Juvenal (Satires), Apuleius (Metamorphoses), Jerome (Letters).

Given that these texts have been drawn from different volumes, the quality of the translations varies. However, at the end of the day, the beauty of the Loeb series lies in the fact that we have access to the original.

I found some of the selections (Josephus, Caesar, Manilius) underwhelming, but that is to be expected. De gustibus non est disputandum, and that is why the Editors seem to have tried to cater to different needs by giving as representative a sample as possible. To make a long story short: this is definitely a good buy.

Of course, the editors were damned if they did and damned if they didn't -- select other passages from the 500 other Loeb volumes. Would I have made a different selection? OF COURSE!

But what do I want to have in my briefcase in case my flight is delayed, the newspapers are depressing and the magazines insipid?

Why this handy anthology! Absolutely a worthy purchase. Where else can you tuck into some choice passages from Cicero, savor Lucretius' account of peace of mind, snack on Aristotle without gagging and get a tremendous belly-laugh from Petronius or Juvenal?

This is a no-brainer and a great gift, too!

120 pages of english translation as an introduction to a library of several hundred volumes? drop the latin and greek, and triple the length.