A selection of the best of the world's literature from Homer to Finnegan's Wake, but what a selection! An odd criterion was adopted for the selection: each item of poetry or prose had to have been pronounced perfect or the greatest of its kind by some responsible critic. Thus we have this 2600-year-old fragment from Sappho "The moon has set and the Pleiades; it is the middle of the night and time passes, time passes, and I lie alone." And Aldous Huxley comments: "Not even the best of the Chinese could have said more in so small a compass."

The book includes the original languages, ancient Greek, Latin, Old and Middle English, Old French and German, Italian, Icelandic et al, followed by English translations and the remarks of the critic responsible for its inclusion among works that reach towards the "limits of art."

I have the original beautifully-crafted edition which I was lucky to get a few years back for about $70 at Princeton University Press but, alas, copies are now hard to find. Separate volumes of poetry, prose and criticism were more recently issued and these also are now scarce. This is a book that will still be prized centuries hence, a wonderful gift to be passed on to your grandchildren and to their grandchildren

If you've already got both of Mencken's Chrestomathies, his Prejudices series, Newspaper Days, Heathen Days, Treatise on the Gods, and The American Language, this book will be mostly gratuitous. Otherwise, it's a good collection of his opinions, and opinionated he certainly was. It also includes his introduction to The American Democrat by James Fenimore Cooper, various magazine articles (including two published just before his stroke), and some previously unpublished letters.

The major value in Mencken's writings is that he thought outside of the mainstream. I share his views more often than not, but even when I disagree with him, he makes me think.

This dreadful anthology was once the standard English edition of Plato. I had to assign it when I taught courses on Plato because there was nothing else. Many of the translations are bad. Even the decent ones often are quite old, and their flowery Victorian diction is off-putting. The collection isn't complete, as it leaves out a number of important dialogues from the Platonic corpus. And the introductions are uniformly ghastly; the editors have little understnding of philosophy, and keep saying horrible things like "There's a lot of boring logic-chopping in this dialogue, but at least the personality of Socrates is engaging." There is no longer any need to be subject to the tyranny of Hamilton & Cairns! There is now a far better edition, with excellent introductions, excellent translations, and including all the dialogues. It's the COMPLETE WORKS from Hackett Pub., edited by John Cooper. It will be the standard edition from now on. Go get that one! Don't get this one!

Yes, I think Plato's philosophy is one of the most despicable things unleashed on this Earth. His idea that this world we live in is only semi-real has lead to most of the bad philosphy in recorded history. Only a few philosphers have escaped from under his glare. It's most ironic that one of those is his most famous student: Aristotle.
However, as a lover of knowledge and a student of philosophy, I realize the tremendous debt owed to Plato. First, he understood how imprtant it was to record his ideas. Socrates did not and for this the world is almost assuredly the worst for it. Secondly, he was and absolutely amazing writer. His ability to put his ideas forth in a lucid manner that anyone can uderstand is amazing. Thirdly, he was the first philosopher who devised a full system of knowledge. He wrote on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics and aesthetics.
It is further unfortunate that this text has become the standard by which philosphy students must study Plato. The text is rigid, and as an earlier reviewer noted, Hamilton's intros suck. It is ridiculous to think of her as a serious Platonic scholar. But the Cooper text is much harder to come by, and the Hamilton is required in most courses on Plato. If you have the means, secure yourself a copy of both.

I have read several of the translations of Plato's dialogues by different scholars... this is the best one that I have come across. Granted Ms. Hamilton's introductions are a little sparce, but that leaves the reader to form a better opinion... not one jaded. This edition is one of the most complete volumes available... where Letters, Menexenus, Lesser Hippias and Ion are found with a rather extensive index and the standard numbering lines from the Greek text.

We have meaningful translations, translations of what Plato was trying to say in todays English language... I know that over time languages grow and evolve but here we read the dialogues like a short story full of life and viable.

The translations in this volume are from: Lane Cooper, F.M. Cornford, W.K.C. Guthrie, R. Hackforth, Michael Joyce, Benjamin Jowett, L.A. Post, W.H.D. Rouse, Paul Shorey, J.B.Skemp, A.E. Taylor Hugh Tredennick, W.D. Woodhead, and J. Wright.

For being a one volume set, this is about as complete as it gets.