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Product Description
Based on the same principles that lay behind the book "Learn Latin", this book provides the chance to read real ancient Greek. It teaches the reader enough Greek in 20 chapters to be able to read selected passages from the New Testament and from Classical Greek literature such as Plato, Aristophanes and Euripides. Each chapter also comes with sections on ancient Greek history and culture and on the influence of the ancient language on ours.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
75 of 77 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a very cunningly constructed text. The author is very clear about what he wants you to achieve: to get a sense of achievement from reading short classical texts and short sections from the New Testament.No time is diverted into learning noun endings: emphasis is on the all important definite article. You will be led by the nose through active and passive verbs and participles. Every exercise is linked to a translation key. It hardly sounds exciting but it might just hook you.
The book can be unreservedly recommended as a first text to adult beginners working completely on their own. If you do not get past the grammar of chapter three there is still plenty of interesting reading in the background pages on Greek language and culture ahead of you in the remaing 17 chapters.
By the time you reach chpt 19 you might feel the need to refer to a more formal text on grammar.Personally I found J.Taylor's "Greek to GCSE,Part 1" an ideal complement to LAG. Do not attempt JT's book on your own unless you have first worked through LAG: there is no key to translations in JT; it is after all intended to be used in schools.
Ironic perhaps that ancient Greek,dying out as a school subject ,is served so well by these recently written texts. To repeat : if you are an adult( with some interest in languages, and with a fair bit of time available) get yourself a copy of LAG - it is a thoroughly entertaining introduction which eschews any attempt to get kudos
from appearing to be only for the aristoi.
The book can be unreservedly recommended as a first text to adult beginners working completely on their own. If you do not get past the grammar of chapter three there is still plenty of interesting reading in the background pages on Greek language and culture ahead of you in the remaing 17 chapters.
By the time you reach chpt 19 you might feel the need to refer to a more formal text on grammar.Personally I found J.Taylor's "Greek to GCSE,Part 1" an ideal complement to LAG. Do not attempt JT's book on your own unless you have first worked through LAG: there is no key to translations in JT; it is after all intended to be used in schools.
Ironic perhaps that ancient Greek,dying out as a school subject ,is served so well by these recently written texts. To repeat : if you are an adult( with some interest in languages, and with a fair bit of time available) get yourself a copy of LAG - it is a thoroughly entertaining introduction which eschews any attempt to get kudos
from appearing to be only for the aristoi.
149 of 155 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a member of the hoi polloi (sorry Peter), I was always far more interested in ancient history than I was in the modern stuff. It was really depressing for me at school when those evil teachers dragged me away from shields, swords and Rex Harrison as Caesar, and forced me to learn all that nonsense about Bismarck, Real-Politik and the dreaded 'Too Little, Too Late' essay about one of those Russian Alexander blokes.
And I was always terrible at languages too. The best I could ever manage was 'je ne comprende pas' or 'ich verstehe nicht ganz'. Hardly scintillating, especially in two awful French and German oral exams. But after a lifetime of speaking only chip-shop English, a friend got me to read Alan Massie's 'Augustus' which I loved (it helped explain why Richard Burton was so defiant to that fella from Planet of the Apes in Egypt), which in turn persuaded me to read Virgil's 'Aeniad', which then arrowed me into Homer's 'Illiad'. Marvellous, but wouldn't it be even better to read it all in the original? You must be joking I thought, as I slipped Peter Jones book over the bookshop counter to a smirking assistant.
But it has been a revelation. Simple, fun and quite simply the best language book I have ever read. I'm only up to Chapter three but I know I will finish it. Okay, so all I'm able to read is 'God is in man, and man is within God said Paul to the crowd', but it's in ancient greek lettering, from the original New Testament, and I actually understand it on the page. I cannot wait to finish the book, and then get onto the Latin one too. Marvellous.
My only question is, why can't all language books be as simple as this? Why did an extremely dry Xavier always have to be helping his dreadfully dull mother buy boring sausages at the charcuterie (or whatever)? And why did some of those smug modern language teachers speak to me like I'd just crawled out of a drain because I couldn't remember the third participle of the second noun declension of the imperfect tense of the dative nominative gobbledegook. Was it me who could not learn languages, or was it them who could not teach? I had always thought the former, now I'm inclined to believe the latter (yes, OK, I may be just a little bit bitter and twisted).
Witty, fun, and easy to read (while remaining disciplined) Peter Jones should be made to write books on French and German. And then perhaps some of those Johnny Foreigners might actually direct me to a nearby toilet rather than avoiding me dans la rue oder am Strasse. Top work.
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I suppose I come to this text from a different angle to most other reviewers. I am just coming up to 70 and still patching up some of those 'holes' of lost opportunity - and one of these is very definitely, ancient Greek!
I am currently learning this from LAG having virtually put a rain check on Icelandic and Old English because, like some of the other reviewers, I am totally caught up in this refreshingly new and entertaining approach of Peter Jones. Like most people of my advancing age I am conscious of a frustrating slowing down in the activity of the few remaining grey cells but I still find that by using this little volume I can progress at a satisfactory pace notwithstanding the many idiosyncrasies presented in this ancient language e.g.the lack of a consistent verb root or the fact that a neuter plural noun takes a singular verb.
I notice that one of your reviewers criticises the pace of the book. I can understand this coming from a young (university?) student but for the ordinary John (or Joan!)Does who may suddenly have an urge to extend their educational horizons this is a stimulating, entertaining and very manageable introduction to the subject and it achieves exactly what it sets out to achieve. I can't wait now that I have the basic knowledge obtained from LAG to progress to the next level. I already possess a knowledge of several other living languages which will be a great help at the next stage but even without this background in languages I am sure that most others who attempt the journey will be well rewarded by their initial excursion through this introductory volume.
Worth 6 stars at least ...............!
I am currently learning this from LAG having virtually put a rain check on Icelandic and Old English because, like some of the other reviewers, I am totally caught up in this refreshingly new and entertaining approach of Peter Jones. Like most people of my advancing age I am conscious of a frustrating slowing down in the activity of the few remaining grey cells but I still find that by using this little volume I can progress at a satisfactory pace notwithstanding the many idiosyncrasies presented in this ancient language e.g.the lack of a consistent verb root or the fact that a neuter plural noun takes a singular verb.
I notice that one of your reviewers criticises the pace of the book. I can understand this coming from a young (university?) student but for the ordinary John (or Joan!)Does who may suddenly have an urge to extend their educational horizons this is a stimulating, entertaining and very manageable introduction to the subject and it achieves exactly what it sets out to achieve. I can't wait now that I have the basic knowledge obtained from LAG to progress to the next level. I already possess a knowledge of several other living languages which will be a great help at the next stage but even without this background in languages I am sure that most others who attempt the journey will be well rewarded by their initial excursion through this introductory volume.
Worth 6 stars at least ...............!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Ancient Greek for Modern Dummies
I love this book! At school, I learned my Latin strictly grammatically from amo amas amat upwards. I did manage to scrape an O-level,despite not having memorized the entire Gallic... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kalimera
Painless non-academic introduction to ancient Greek
Peter Jones is an accomplished advocate of Latin and Greek, and this book is an excellent introduction to ancient Greek. The approach is light-hearted. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. F. Cayley
Funny-yes. Good textbook-no.
I do not understand why this book is so highly esteemed, probably most of the reviews are written by people who just started reading, and at the start the book is like no... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Bart B
Ancient humour
This book seems to be intended for self-study and is chatty and schoolmasterly. Its main disadvantage for me is that it uses the 'Erasmian' rather than the modern pronounciation. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Andrew Ravensdale
It's all Greek to me
When I bought this book I already had the Latin edition so was familiar with the author's style and general layout of the book. I was not disappointed when it arrived. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Vicki
Learn Ancient Greek
This book makes the many difficulties of Greek grammar easier. It would be nice if a more adult version were published, without the rather silly jokes meant to amuse teenage... Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2010 by Mrs. D. E. Smith
A fun and light-hearted taster of real ancient Greek
This book is far from a complete language course - it is extremely short and provides, in only 20 lessons, just enough Greek to learn a handful of passages, the longest of these... Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2009 by Humphrey
So far so good
Well, I'm still only on page 12 but I've learned more about pronunciation (even without the tape)than in 4 years of modern Greek evening class. Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2008 by Mrs. I. E. Aldridge
A definite gift horse
This is a fun and light-hearted taster of the ancient Greek language. Written in a humorous manner it mixes the basics of the language with Greek myth and Biblical passages. Mr. Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2008 by Patrick Mullane
so so
All reviews about this handbook sound quite enthusiastic, I do not agree.
First of all, I should like to make clear that I am not new to studying ancient and modern... Read more
First of all, I should like to make clear that I am not new to studying ancient and modern... Read more
Published on 27 Dec 2007 by Furio
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