38 Latin Stories Designed to Accompany Frederic M. Wheelock's Latin

Also available:

Rome and Her Kings: Extracts from Livy I - ISBN 0865164509
Latin Readings for Review: Elementary Latin Translation Book - ISBN 0865164037

The book is designed for English speaking students who are using the famous and good "Wheelok's Latin" as its Latin Grammar. I bought the two books together but jumped rigth away to "38 Latin Stories" and was not disappointed at all. I got in fact a lot of fun out of it and all the pleasure and satisfaction I was expecting, which means the authors did a good job. Each of the 38 stories presented are famous texts of Latin or Greek ancient authors adapted to a modern reader, and the lessons are increasing in difficulty, according to the corresponding chapters of Wheelok's. The texts are at the left side of the page, with some remarks on the level of difficulty presented and at the right side there is the corresponding and explained vocabulary. At the end of the book, there is a very good glossary with words that are also important to the understanding of the texts, all this according to strict Latin way of presentations of verbs, nouns and all types of words.

The texts are somewhat small but very interesting, both from the point of view of the stories written, all of them taken and adapted to prose from very well-known Latin or even Greek writers (Cicero, Homer, Julius Cesar etcetera). Given the idiosyncracies of the extreme irregular conjugation of verbs in Latin, and this specially from the point of view of the English speaking reader, it is advisable to have as an add-on any of the many good book of Latin verbs, as, for instance, 501 Latin verbs, by Richard Prior & Joseph Wohlberg, which has also a good verb locator.

38 Stories is a very good help to any one interested in the Latin language, but it supposes some prior knowledge of the language. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Good reading and Valete!!


This is what you learn Latin for   November 19, 2003
 20 out of 32 found this review helpful

Why does anyone want to learn Latin? Because they want to be able to read things in Latin: State Mottoes, those funny sayings on money, and the works of Roman authors. This book gives you the opportunity to read stories written in Latin after you have finished chapter 3 of Wheelock's Latin, allowing you to both test what you have learned, and to do what you really want to do: read Latin.


Smooth Transition to Reading Latin   July 16, 2003
 70 out of 70 found this review helpful

The "38 Stories" in the book, edited to form a progression in difficulty, are an excellent introduction to reading actual Latin authors. The most frustrating time in a Latin student's course of study may be this transition from memorizing grammatical forms to applying this knowledge in reading Latin. The stories are fairly short, so that students will not get bored by content, exposing them to many different styles of writing in a shorter period of time.

The passages chosen are also from famous authors' works, giving students a sense of satisfaction that they are now able to read the work of those authors about which they have heard much reference. Formatted like the more difficult Latin works, with notes and vocabulary facing the page, "38 Latin Stories" eases students into this style of study, better preparing them for reading works of Cicero, Vergil, Horace, and others. Moreover, this book does not need to be used in conjunction with Wheelock's Latin. Personally, I used this text after the study of grammar and before delving into Cicero's Catilinarian orations. Even just taking selected passages from the 38 stories is an excellent introduction to reading Latin through reinforcement of grammatical concepts.