PLUTARCH: TEN FAMOUS LIVES

There is a definite need for a readable and modern edition of Plutarch's Lives, but this book falls shorts of meeting the challenge. Excerpts from original head the edited biographies of the great figures of antiquity. The lives and characters of five Greeks-Themistocies, Perician, Alcibladen, Demouthenes, Alexander the Great--and five Roman- Fablus, Cato the Elder, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Antony--are recounted with historical facts and personal anecdotes in the fine Plutarchian manner. But unless the introduction, which we have not yet seen, adequately emphasizes the venerable biographer's importance, this editor's dry style will offer little stimulation to young readers and may even belie the historical and human significance of their ancient forebears.