Archive for October 21st, 2008


October 21, 2008

This edition of Vergil’s ECLOGUES comes in Cambridge University Press’ “Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics” series, and is a typical entry. The Eclogues were Virgil’s first literary creation, ten pastoral poems that are often a slavish imitation of the bucolic poetry written by Theocritus, but occasionally show striking originality. The fourth eclogue, a foretelling of a golden age brought in by the birth of a miraculous child, is historically significant as it was appreciated by some in the early Church.

The Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series combines the text with an introduction and extensive commentary. Here these materials are prepared by Robert Coleman, a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The introduction consists of four sections: “The pastoral before Vergil”, “The chronology and arrangement of the Eclogues”, “Vergil’s achievement as a pastoral poet”, and “Text, Note on orthography”. These are interesting, but as with the introductions of so many works in this series, one feels that the author already expects you to know all about the work in question already. The commentary takes up 227 pages of this 303-page work, and deals many with explicating the historical allusions and poetic devices of the Eclogues. Regrettably, the commentary does not touch much on Virgil’s use of archaic Latin diction, for it would be interesting to explore how much earlier these forms had passed from colloquial speech.

If you are interested in the literary themes, this is a good edition to have. Those who would rather read the book out of linguistic interest (like this student of comparative Indo-European linguistics) might rather go with the Oxford Classical Text edition.

Zip file of the entire book (33MB)

free audiobook

free audiobook


October 21, 2008

This book is absolutly amazing. This is her first book ever to write and I think she had an extremly good start. This book is about Kiki, a Crazy Calico Cat who gets herself into trouble at the hands of Mrs. Hise. At the first of the book Kiki and Mrs. Hise do not care for each other much but by the end of the book Mrs. Hise and Kiki have grown a strong friendship that Mrs. Hise never expected. It is an amzingly cute story about how not to count your chikins before they hatch. Meaning, don’t judge a book by it’s cover before you read it.

When I first saw this book I was’ent so sure about it, but I am so glad that I bought it. One of my favorite books ever!!!

Mrs. Hise has an amazing way of writing about an amazigly cute story that teaches us an important lesson. An AMAZING BOOK that I reccomend to ANYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zip file of the entire book - 73MB

free audiobook

free audiobook


October 21, 2008

I always read Memoirs of a London Doll at the same time I read Hitty — about once a year. The London Doll is a lovely, diminutive wooden lady named Maria Poppet, who has an interesting variety of adventures as she moves from one “little mother” to another. Her story begins around Christmas but she becomes more aware of her surroundings on Twelfth Night. Her “biography” continues through a full year, just past pantomime season the following Christmas. This is a well-written story which provides interesting insights into the lives of both wealthy and working children in the 1800’s without the preaching that often accompanies this sort of tale. The introduction is worth reading as well.

Zip file of the entire book (4.7 MB)

free audiobook

free audiobook