Carpe Diem: Put A Little Latin in Your Life

Although this little tome is fun to read and take a bit of the boredom out of learning the language, it is still just a primer, and is, at times, still boring. However, by biggest gripe about the book is that it doesn't have a pronunciation guide. So, for someone like me who speaks both English and Spanish, it's very confusing and frustrating to try and say these things out loud.

I have never studied Latin (other than memorizing a bunch as an altar boy back in the day) nor do I intend to, but after having read "Carpe Diem" I certainly understand a lot more than I did about Latin grammar and how it works.

The book is also chock full of interesting anecdotes and bits of history concerning Latin that is well worth reading even if you do skip over the grammar parts.

Back in the day, when I was a tender young sprout, I (an altar boy) had begun training to respond to the priest in Latin during Mass. Alas, the Church just then decided that Mass would be said in the vernacular (the Latin-derived French of my immigrant neighborhood) and by the time my training had ended, so had the Latin Mass. This experience set up a lifelong longing for the glories of Latin. When I heard of "Carpe Diem," I believed that at long last, I would be able to pick up this lost language and set my soul at ease.

Alas, "Carpe Diem" (seize the day) should have been titled "Caveat Emptor" (buyer beware). The book purports to make it easy for would-be student of Latin to pick up enough of the dead tongue to be able to read the odd tombstone or epitaph. Instead, the book is a cleverly-packaged snarky memento of a childhood spent learning Latin in England's school system. Following every few pages of ironic memories is a list of declensions of Latin nouns, which pop in like so many errant birds through the window of the narrative, leaving behind only a memory of their pleasant yet unintelligible twittering. To think that one could learn Latin from this approach is akin to thinking that slipping a series times tables into a kid's comic book would teach him math.

When memories run out, the author inserts long discussion of classical architecture, glossaries of common (and commonplace) Latin expressions, and even a short, "clever" summary of the history of Roman emperors. Incredibly, the centurion scene from Monty Python's "Life of Brian" is rendered in full, as are long snippets of Latin poetry, which remain unintelligible to all but the author and his circle of friends.

To say that "Carpe Diem " is a disappointment is understating the case significantly. The book is a fraud, a distraction, a broken promise, an unforgivable tease and a lost opportunity. There remain those (like myself) for whom a rudimentary knowledge of Latin is a life's desire. There is a need (in this, as in all subjects) for the guidance of an old master to provide a trail map through the thicket of Latin conjugations, declensions, syntax and vocabulary. This book is not that guide.

Wish that it were.

This is an excellent Latin primer - set forth in an engaging, yet competent fashion. I studied Latin in high school and reading the book brought back the language with a rush. It's not a novel or a collection of useful sayings such as "Latin for the Illiterati" or "Amo, Amas. Amat and More". but for anyone with an interest in Latin at any level of understanding, it is a worthwhile buy.

As an American, it was difficult for me to adjust to Mount's British tone, he being a young hipster in addition to one heck of a Latin student. Wow. His writing sounds stilted to my American ear, but the book is obviously not meant for scholarship. Its intent is to pique people's interest in what is perhaps the most important language in human history.

Mount succeeds, albeit in a voice I am unfamiliar with, and a style that at once frustrates and delights. The bottom line is you will be more interested than ever in learning Latin after reading "Carpe Diem".