Plutarch.

Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, n.d.(>1973). VII,183p. Cloth wrps. Signature on half title. Small name stamp on title page. 'After a good introductory first chapter on Plutarch's family and social background, Russell devotes his second chapter to ?Language, style and Form'; as he well observes later, 'ancient writers think of their work primarily in terms of persuasive presentation' and 'the reference to the audience determines almost everything. This second chapter is therefore of the greatest importance for his own presentation of Plutarch, and in it he gives a most laudable account of Plutarch's varieties of style, with quotations from widely differing types of work. (?) In the third chapter ('The Scholar and his Books') we are shown how Plutarch collected his vast range of material and the ways in which he used his sources. The scene is now set for a consideration of Plutarch?s philosophical and religious works (Chapter 4) and 'The Moralist and his Fellow-Men' (Chapter 5), in which the Platonic basis of his views is consistently maintained (?). In dealing with the Lives (?) Russell follows a logical rather than a chronological pattern. (?) Although it could not be more than an introduction ? and as such it could not have been bettered ? it is followed in Chapter 7 by a discussion of the Alcibiades (?) which analyses Plutarch's interpretation of character in more detail. Chapter 8 (?) reminds us that concentration on analysis is apt to distract our attention from Plutarch's considerable powers of description (?). Two concluding chapters provide a more than adequate summary of Plutarch's Nachleben and his influence on western civilization.' (A.J. GOSSAGE in The Classical Review (New Series), 1976, pp.174-75).