Customer Reviews
Too trendy! - By: TheCattery, 02 Jul 2008 
I am only give it a couple of stars for the insight into lifein Pompeii & the lovely pictures, but I do not think it is that great for learning Latin.
I am teaching Latin to my daughter & 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 taughtin a logical order. You go straight into 4 tenses of "amo"in the first chapter & my daughter is coming on leaps & bounds now.
My main problem with the CLC is that it is "all over the place", ie you start by learning only the nom. & acc. of nouns & 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 fillingin gaps, rather than translating whole sentences. There are too few exercises as well.
An excellent study guide but for some vital info missing - By: Ms. Ej Perry, 02 Nov 2007 
I bought this book to teach myself Latinin my own time, at home & I have not been disappointed. I was denied the opportunity to study Latin at GCSE (something which has greatly vexed me), & 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 & easy to understand. The new grammar & vocab is introducedin every chapter & the subsequent stories really build upon everything you have learntin 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 &in the vocab list at the end of each chapter. Even with these words missing, once you have translated the rest of the sentence & 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 - By: Lani Hardage-Vergeer, 11 Oct 2007 
I may be treading on some "classical" toes here, but I started with the Wheelock's set of books & was completely lost, even though I feel I am somewhat near an expertin English, quite fluentin French, & conversantin Spanish & German. I found the Cambridge course to proceed at the right pace of introducing new features & vocabulary, with interesting stories to use the grammar & 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 & not really worth the extra cost.
Style over substance - By: D. Smith, 19 Sep 2007 The Cambridge Latin Course ruined my introduction to Latin at GCE O level! Great on context & culture - but light on really the useful practicalities of grammar & syntax. Great if you want trendy educational ideology - (well,in a nostalgic 1970's sort of way) but if you want to learn Latin...give this course a miss & go for something useful than Metella's latest hairdoo.
Brilliant way to learn - By: , 19 Sep 2004 In my quest to learn Latin, having been disappointed by other books, this was recommended to me by a friend. After reading the positive reviews on Amazon I decided to buy it.
I was not disappointedin it at all. This was exactly what i was looking forin a book:
It had stories to translate that focussed around one family so there was a familiar thread to them. Sometimes it even has (althoughin a very 'learning is fun' way) humour.
It had a gradual increase of vocabulary, giving any new wordsin a story down the side of it.
It had a full dictionary of all the words usedin the book at the back of it, along with a section on all the grammar taught.
The grammar was introduced at the right rate & there were exersizes to test how well you had understood the new points. There were three-four exersizes every chapter (with 20 chaptersin total), along with the translations.
The end of the book leads nicely on to the start of the next one so it is not difficult to continue.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn to read Latin. You will not regret buying it!
