Product Description

The leading Latin course worldwide Book I begins in the city of Pompeii shortly before the eruption of Vesuvius. Book I is full colour throughout, with a clear layout of stories and language notes. Featuring a glossary for quick reference and comprehension questions, the book also includes a full explanation of language points and grammar practice exercises.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2396 in Books
• Published on: 1998-08-06
• Format: Student Edition
• Original language: Latin
• Binding: Paperback
• 205 pages

Synopsis
The leading Latin course worldwide Book I begins in the city of Pompeii shortly before the eruption of Vesuvius. Book I is full colour throughout, with a clear layout of stories and language notes. Featuring a glossary for quick reference and comprehension questions, the book also includes a full explanation of language points and grammar practice exercises.

Customer Reviews

Too trendy!
I am only give it a couple of stars for the insight into life in Pompeii and the lovely pictures, but I do not think it is that great for learning Latin.

I am teaching Latin to my daughter and we started of with this book. She did not do very well, although she was keen to learn. We now use the more traditional "So you really want to Learn Latin", published by Galore Park, which is brilliant - lots of exercises, with the grammar taught in a logical order. You go straight into 4 tenses of "amo" in the first chapter and my daughter is coming on leaps and bounds now.

My main problem with the CLC is that it is "all over the place", ie you start by learning only the nom. and acc. of nouns and by the end of book 1, only the dat. is added. I feel it is much easier to learn all 6 cases for each type of noun at the same time. I also do not think that the exercises are that good, as they mainly seem to consist of filling in gaps, rather than translating whole sentences. There are too few exercises as well.

An excellent study guide but for some vital info missing
I bought this book to teach myself Latin in my own time, at home and I have not been disappointed. I was denied the opportunity to study Latin at GCSE (something which has greatly vexed me), and after seeing this book available, I bought it on a 'whim' not really expecting much from it. I was completely wrong however, as it makes Latin accessible and easy to understand. The new grammar and vocab is introduced in every chapter and the subsequent stories really build upon everything you have learnt in previous chapters. I am definetly buying the other books once I have finished this one.

The reason why I haven't given this book full stars, is because I have come across a few words that are missing completely from the vocab at the back and in the vocab list at the end of each chapter. Even with these words missing, once you have translated the rest of the sentence and you understand the gist of the story, you are able to make an educated guess as to the meaning of the word allowing you to continue with the exercises with confidence.

Better than Wheelock's
I may be treading on some "classical" toes here, but I started with the Wheelock's set of books and was completely lost, even though I feel I am somewhat near an expert in English, quite fluent in French, and conversant in Spanish and German. I found the Cambridge course to proceed at the right pace of introducing new features and vocabulary, with interesting stories to use the grammar and new words. The Cambridge Latin Course web site has additional online exercises, which I found I needed as the book exercises were a bit skimpy. The Independent Learning Manual has a few additional exercises but seems geared toward young students and not really worth the extra cost.