Cambridge Latin Course Unit 1 Student's Text North American edition (North American Cambridge Latin Course)

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Let's say you have read some fiction set in Ancient Rome, the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough or the books of Steven Saylor, for example. Let's say you have read some history books. Perhaps you have visited some Roman Ruins. Perhaps you have even read Caesar or Cicero or Livy in translation. Now you want to read them in the original. If this describes you, then this book is for you. It is the beginning of a 4 book introductory Latin course. Each book has a theme. This first one is set in Pompeii on the eve of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. We observe the life of a banker named Lucius Caecilius Iucundus and his family. Caecilius was a real person: his Pompeii house was excavated and can be seen today. We read increasingly complicated stories with the help of the provided vocabulary. The style is engaging and tongue-in-cheek as it presents the life of the Caecilius household, warts and all. I thoroughly enjoyed this view of Roman society. Notice that if, as I have indicated above, your interest is primarily in learning to read Latin, then this is exactly what you want. Latin is an easy enough language for English speakers, because the roots of many of our words are Latin. If you have a smattering of a Romance language like Spanish or French or Italian, then it is easier still. Each chapter also provides background information on Roman history and culture.

Eventually, however, one has to learn the conjugation of Latin verbs (four categories) and the inflections of the nouns (three declensions). And so from a gentle start, by the end of the book we must fully confront the guerilla warfare of learning grammar through tenses, cases and conjugation that bedevils the study of any language. One hopes that by reading enough texts one can pick this up intuitively as one did one's first language as a child, but this is probably a vain hope. At the end of Unit One, then, having journeyed across the pleasant plains of the easy beginnings of language study, having sadly witnessed the destruction of Pompeii and the characters we have formed a bond with, we now behold the foothills, and beyond them the snowcapped peaks, that we must scale as we move on to the subsequent Units in the course.

This is a great book for learning Latin. Using and plan on to continue using in the future. Great buy.

I recently took a 5-week crash course in Latin, and we used the first two volumes of this series (which I remembered from my high school Latin class many years ago!). My instructor uses it for both children and adults and has had great success with it. It's a very good way to get started, particularly for those whose goal in learning Latin is being able to pick up any text and figure out what it says (with a dictionary) rather than acquiring the ability to pass an exam in Latin grammar and syntax. By getting you into reading texts right away rather than memorizing grammar and syntax charts, this book does a great job of building the student's confidence. Each stage starts with cartoons above simple sentences and then moves into a series of longer stories before concluding with grammar and syntax sections and cultural details. The stories and characters are often amusing, and there's a lot of basic information about Roman life and culture. Although a classroom setting is best for learning Latin, I suspect this book would also be very effective for those working through it on their own. Highly recommended.

I took Latin as a high school freshman, and this was the first textbook we used. It's straightforward, easy, and fun, and my delightful Latin experience would later fuel my decision to study linguistics in college. I love Cambridge Latin.
One caveat: the first two books in this series are fairly short and aimed at younger kids. My class used Book One (this book) for the first half of the year and continued to Book Two in the spring semester. Books Three and Four are more involved; I spent my second year of Latin studing from Book Three and my third year of Latin studying from Book Four.