The Beginner's Latin Book - Tapa blanda

"The Beginner's Latin Book" is a superb Edwardian primer in which William Collar, a leading American educator of his time, demonstrates his genius for teaching this difficult language. He covers every major construction, including idioms with the subjunctive, without burdening the student with the excessive technical detail to be found in more formal courses. In other words, he teaches the language as a living tool for communication, the way it was used by the common Roman people, rather than as an object for purely formal analysis. Written for younger students at a time when Latin was a part of the regular curriculum, today this self-contained course (an extensive vocabulary is included) offers a gentle and yet thorough introduction to Classical Latin and will enable anyone who works through the exercises to go on to read the Golden Age authors in their own words. The present text has been given generous margins to allow the student to make copious notes.

To bridge the gap between textbook Latin and the writings of the ancient writers, William Collar also authored the excellent, "The Gate to Caesar" and "Via Latina - an Easy Latin Reader".

An alternative first Latin book is the excellent Latin for beginners, ISBN 978-1544745763. This has a freely available key.

For those wishing to advance their Latin studies these reasonably priced books are available on Amazon, just copy and paste the ISBN into the search box: Bennentt's Latin Grammar ISBN-10: 1535019174; Via Latina, ISBN 1544780117 An Easy Latin Reader ISBN-10: 1974156354. By Arcadius Avellanus, a brilliant translator into Latin, Treasure Island, ISBN-10: 1533694567, Fairy Tales, ISBN-10: 1533695792, a 1930's detective novel, ISBN-10: 1542955688; This is an excellent introduction to Caesar which demonstrates how to break down his knotty syntax, ISBN-10: 153067963 Nepos is one of the easiest classical authors to read, this edition interlines the Latin with English to make him even more accessible. A great learning tool, ISBN-10: 1539833097; for the advanced student, this book covers just about every Latin idiom Caesar and Cicero ever used, ISBN-10: 153060592 Robinson Crusoe in Latin, mercifully condensed and good for acquiring new vocabulary, ISBN-10: 1530573440; the classic Roman work on medicine written in very clear Latin, ISBN-10: 154137455; if you happen to be a genius, ISBN-10: 1542418828