Natural History: A Selection (Penguin Classics)

You can discount this review by the way that I bought this seeking to read the famous account of Vesuvius' eruption. I couldn't remember which Pliny wrote it - and since I have free shipping through Amazon Prime, I just went ahead and impulse-bought the Natural History, without even Googling the Plinys.Anyhow.These selections from the Natural History are fascinating. Pliny was an energetic man, hugely desirous of literary immortality, who wrote his books in the interstices of a full career as a soldier and an administrator. Pliny worked when others were asleep; Pliny read and dictated in a sedan chair as he moved about urban areas.The book is rambling and discursive, full of vignettes, asides, and diatribes. Parts are straightforward precises of other authors (for example, I recently read Vitrivius, and Pliny's section on water and pipes reads almost like a New Yorker review of Vitrivius' coverage of water detection and pipe construction) while other parts are based on Pliny's personal observations. The whole is laced with Pliny's rants about the evils of luxury and greed and the decline of the desire for fame; anyone who wonders about the sustainability of contemporary society will find his complaints about the frivolity and vanity of "modern" men to be nearly as appropriate today as they were almost 2000 years ago.Healy's translation is clear and easy to read. However, Healy's selections are occasionally jarring, and some of the section titles are annoying and condescending. The footnotes can be repetitive, and are often rather ill-chosen; Healy footnotes Latin terms that are pretty obvious from cognates, while leaving some more mysterious terms completely unexplained. (It's almost as if he were aiming at a particularly incurious high-school audience.) The index is rather poor, but the Key To Place Names struck me as quite good; it's interesting to see how some names have survived (with modification) while others have been swept away by conquering tides, and it's nice to be able to put a location to places that I've seen in other works and just sort of filed under "exotic locations".Overall, Pliny is not for everyone. I certainly wouldn't recommend it as a first exposure to Roman literature! However, I think any omnivorous reader with even a passing interest in the classics will think their time with Pliny was time well spent. Pliny ranges; Pliny amuses; Pliny will be nice to have on your shelf if industrial civilization does collapse.

The elder Pliny must have been a wonderful person to know. He was curious about everything, was well-educated, well-traveled, and had a lot of practical experience in worldly matters. He was a Renaissance Man way before the Renaissance. In this delightful work, Pliny set out to write down everything he knew about everything. You can read the table of contents to see the topics he covers and how the material is organized. But what makes the book really great for me is Pliny’s personality. He doesn’t go into formal details about philosophy or politics, etc., but these things come through as he explains the natural world. He has some strong opinions as well as a sense of humor. He also isn’t shy of including a piquant episode every now and then.My only criticism of the book is that it’s an abridgement. The editor-translator John Healy claims to have excluded mostly those sections that are highly technical and specialized, but I’d still like to read the whole thing. That said, there were a couple of pages when he got into metallurgy and mining where I was getting antsy, so perhaps Healy made the right choice.I found this a very enjoyable reading experience that gave me a lot of insight into how educated Romans perceived the world. (Pliny knew it was round.) It’s also an important book that I believe I’ll be using as a reference as I read more about ancient Rome. Five stars, despite the abridgement.

There are few books that I consider a "must" read. This is one. If one wishes to be an educated person, this is an important classic to read. The Romans knew the earth was a sphere and could explain how daylight farther north in the summer was longer, but the concept of gravity and why one did not fall off the earth on the other side of the sphere was still a mystery. This is a great book and it is miraculous that it has survived as so many important classical writings have disappeared. I have greatly despised how Romans, Greeks, Assyrians, Celts, Persians, Sumerians, and Egyptians have been portrayed during one's primary and secondary education. There is a lot of misrepresentation and perpetual misinformation in our educational system. Reading this book will provide a greater insight into the practical perceptions concerning topics such as life, god, and many other topics from a Roman perspective. Romans were realists. I urge that one read this book and start forming their own ideas about the discoveries and ideas imbedded in Western natural history. It may be different than what is taught in school. Pliny the Elder was a great man, dedicated and diligent in his efforts. He died attempting to rescue his friends from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It is unfortunate his writings concerning the Roman wars with Germany did not survive. The translation is an easy reading, but reread it again and take notes.

Perfect for the person we gifted with it. He was over the moon.

It is quite easy to write a review for a book it is either damaged or brand new and this item was definitely brand new. For those looking for this specific edition it is slightly different in translation than from others I have looked at online but it is still good and a good resource academically. To those needing it for school or just curious about its content I suggest getting it. You won't regret it, the amount of amusement is A+

Very informative as well as interesting

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in natural history from Pliny's (23AD to 79AD) discoveries and accounting of science, and the environment, as it was known at that time.

Clarity is the word that springs to mind mixed with quaintness and, from this reader anyway a healthy respect for Roman ingenuity and knowledge.