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A review by galaxias
Long Live Latin: The Pleasures of a Useless Language by Nicola Gardini
challenging
informative
medium-paced
2.0
Not my cup of tea. The writing itself is very high-quality, but I just couldn’t stay focused; I didn’t find the book very engaging. It’s very technical despite being aimed at a general audience, and even as someone who has studied Latin for six years, I find that there’s too much going on. So many authors and pieces and references that I’m not familiar with.
Furthermore, Gardini romanticizes Latin a bit too much, in my opinion. It all feels flowery and over the top, and while this is a book about the joys of Latin, I don’t know how to feel about it completely disregarding all the problems with the language as well as Roman civilization.
One last note - there are too many quotations. I don’t find reading random snippets of Latin out of context to be very enjoyable, and my brain automatically skips over all of them.
Overall, I think the book is worthy of more than a singular star, but it simply didn’t strike home for me, which is disappointing as a classics major.
Furthermore, Gardini romanticizes Latin a bit too much, in my opinion. It all feels flowery and over the top, and while this is a book about the joys of Latin, I don’t know how to feel about it completely disregarding all the problems with the language as well as Roman civilization.
One last note - there are too many quotations. I don’t find reading random snippets of Latin out of context to be very enjoyable, and my brain automatically skips over all of them.
Overall, I think the book is worthy of more than a singular star, but it simply didn’t strike home for me, which is disappointing as a classics major.