Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans (Complete and Unabridged)

I’ll state my problems with this first. This edition has no introductions, explanatory footnotes, or discussion of Plutarch as a source. It uses the 17th century Dryden translation with the 19th century Clough edits. That is to say, it’s not the most readable translation for most young people. It also doesn’t number the chapters of the lives, so if you’re planning on quoting it in a formal academic paper you won’t be able to cite it correctly if your professor is a stickler about that sort of thing. If you’re new to Plutarch, an undergraduate student or even a high school student, I would recommend the Oxford or Penguin editions of Plutarchs lives. They don’t have all the lives compiled in one volume, instead they put out collections of lives with specific themes (fall of Roman republic, age of Alexander etc etc). You’re better off choosing the 10-20 lives you’re most interested in and doing it that way. All those editions include all the helpful bits of information listed above and use much more modern translations and are thus much easier to handle for the modern reader. If you’re comfortable with the Dryden translation and don’t need to cite it, this is the only collection which presents all of the lives that I would trust. This volume is definitely superior to the other digi-reads edition that amazon is offering.

If you're a fan of Western history & classical Greek / Roman texts, you'll love this. It's always shocking to me how much ancient history has played a part in shaping the language, customs and ideas of today. This continuity bleeds through in every page. Plutarch discusses myths and historical texts revolving around major figures of Grecian and Roman history. He works to create accurate depictions, pointing out likely exaggerations or falsehoods in some historical accounts and paying equal attention to the vices as well as the virtues of his subjects.

The stars are for this edition, not for Plutarch or the translation.Clough edited the translations of Dryden and his team, and occasionally the English is old-fashioned--"discover," for example, often means "reveal" rather than "find out." This edition has no notes, and depending on your knowledge of Greek and Roman history, you may have to make frequent reference to Wikipedia. Pronouns often lack clear antecedents, and it is sometimes necessary to re-read passages in order to straighten out the identities of the many otherwise unidentified "he's" and "him's."It is convenient to have a "complete" translation in one volume, and the binding (I have the paperback edition) is sturdy enough to survive a reading, although at over a thousand pages, the book does become heavy to hold after a while. The worst defects of this particular edition are its typesetting and proofreading. I suspect a text was scanned using an optical character reader to generate the files used to typeset this. Typos abound, and the italics appear to have disappeared during typesetting. The layout of the text appears to result from using the standard default setting of Microsoft Word. There is extra space at the end of each paragraph, and a paragraph indent on the line following each "carriage return." This results in many paragraph breaks and paragraph indents in the middle of sentences. In most cases, I was able to figure out the intended word and the proper formatting, but the number of such cases makes reading this version more of a challenge than any reading should be.

This is a review of the free Kindle edition. It has the text in an OK translation, but the table of contents is very awkwardly presented, and it is not linked to the chapters. Thus it is more or less impossible (in this very long book) to find the chapter you want. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. Unless you are desperate, do not bother with this.

I'm not a scholar by any means. I got interested in ancient Rome through the Colleen McCullough seven novel series about the end of the Roman Republic which I highly recommend. Plutarch's Lives is a slog which I labored through until the last 40 pages or so out of about 1,000. The main difficulty is the translation which at times is virtually incomprehensible. My fifth grade English teacher would have worn out a hundred red pencils just writing "indefinite antecedent" which was my own main crime back then. Many of the lives are so similar eventwise, fighting one tyrant after another, winning and losing, with superfluous characters appearing for one mention and vanishing like so many snowflakes. The worst from my point of view is Plutarch's disdain for Julius Caesar who is probably my favorite personage in all history. Love him or hate him he was the most accomplished man I have ever read about.

This is a Victorian translation of all of Plutarch's lives. That means it's great. The English is not easy, but it is enjoyable in itself. There might here and there be some modern controversy over the translation of individual words, which you might occasionally want to check. The completeness of the edition is a huge plus, though the bulkiness of the volume is sometimes a little inconvenient. There is no editorial material, but who needs that when you have google ? I dont know why I am so stingy as to not give it 5 stars. It's Plutarch, it's complete, it's in Victorian English : what's not to like? Only a handful of other books provide such a window into the ancient world. If you're even thinking of buying it, probably buy it.

I bought this book for my academic studies. I was surprised to see all of Plutarch's Lives within the one book (including the comparisons between Greek and Roman Individuals) and thought it would be a great investment. The book is very thick and attractive. That is its only redeeming feature, however. I'm not very impressed. The English translation is very cumbersome and takes a few reads before you can get a clear understanding of what is written. The sentences are badly arranged and the language is very outdated (It reads as if a Victorian translator had employed Google Translate!). I read four pages of the Life of Lycurgus and had to toss the book to one side. The paragraphs are not numbered, rendering it useless for academic studies as it cannot be referenced in any written assignments etc. As this book is neither pleasant to read nor able to assist in academic referencing it not really useful to anyone. If you are interested in Plutarch I would look elsewhere for a better translation so you can really enjoy his writing.

Helps to clear a path through the maze of folklore, fiction and lost in translation to get to the facts. the book can be a bit of a slog in places but is still very informative. However you cannot read it in quick snatches needs to be read long and hard to absorb the detail

What is there to complain about? Plutarch on tap - a life at a time.

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