eBook Latin Demystified: A Self Teaching Guide download

I have just completed reading and studying Richard Prior's Latin Demystified. While this book has the problems mentioned in two of the other reviews, for the most part it provides a clear explanation of Latin grammar with plenty of useful examples throughout. What it does not do is give much Latin for the student to read. I did not have a problem with this decision to focus more on grammar and the various exercises to test comprehension than on including reading selected passages. In fact, this decision to focus on grammar is common among many Latin texts.

As I finally arrived at the sixteenth and last chapter on participles and gerunds, I was pleased to think I was prepared to tackle books like Hans Orberg's Lingua Latina that are written entirely in Latin. Prior does not include as much vocabulary for reading as I might have liked, but again, that was part of his decision to focus on the way Latin works. Vocabulary acquisition is much less challenging than mastering things like the ablative absolute or deponent verbs, both of which are covered reasonably well by Prior.

One thing is clear to me. The student who is learning Latin on his/her own must be prepared for a challenge of a high order. Much time and effort must be invested in learning the conjugation of verbs and the declension of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. Additionally, the student must realize that the study of Latin must be ongoing over several years with much time spent in reviewing what has been learned and often forgotten because of lack of continuous reinforcement. In his book, Prior presents the complexities of the language, which are considerable, but the tone of the book is encouraging and helpful.

The reader of this review will by this time have clearly noted that Latin Demystified is not without problems, but it seemed good enough for me to recommend with noted reservations.

Update: I have just finished reading Prior's other Latin text, The Everything Learning Latin Book. I compared the two books and they have many similarities, as one might expect. If I had to choose between the two texts, I think Demystified is, as its title suggests, a bit clearer. It does not have Everything, but enough for first-time students to become thorougly acquainted with the Latin language. The Everything text provides a good review of Dymystified and adds more of the complexity of Latin. No one will study either of these books without gaining respect for the challenge involved in reading Latin competently.

This very valuable book arrived early and in good condition. Thank you
for a job well done.

Great Product!!

A disappointing sequel to Prior's earlier book. Gone are the helpful graphics, the friendly tabular formats, the interesting side notes and historical background. As if they got half-way done, did a flat-text dump of the content, and then just decided to publish. The product of a bloated dysfunctional bureaucracy - something you'd expect from the old Soviet Union, or from those ignorant self-righteous ninnies in the malignant DC-Empire

We were expecting an upgrade of Prior's 2003 book - correct the mistakes & typos - maybe add more depth in some areas. But this 2008 publication by McGraw-Hill is a big step backward. Most of the content is more shallow and less friendly to read

Standing by itself we might give it three or four stars - Prior is a good source. But compared with his 2003 publication, this new book gets a well-deserved two-stars. There's no excuse for this downgrade. We guess the author must have lost control of this project

Good book!

Not helpful.

Rear

Ģreat book... thanks... just what I nèded

Do not be fooled by the title. It is not a self-study book. It is, at best, the description of the Latin grammer. Nothing to do with any learning. I am not sure where the author is coming from but there are some rules and methodologies how to learn a new language. Start with basics, repeat, review, add news stuff, explain, repeat, review, add new stuff, etc., etc. Here we begin with explanation of all Latin tenses, good luck. Then, the perfect tense is introduced first. Why? And all four forms of Latin verbs are explained. To whom? Someone who has no clue what Latin is. Mind you this is a first lesson. and so it goes. No, I would not recommend this book to anyone.