Fairy Tales in Latin: Fabulae Mirabiles

by Victor Barocas, Susan S. Schearer (Editor)

This popular collection of 12 familiar fairy tales in Latin has been a classroom favorite for over a decade now. It provides an engaging alternative to traditional Latin texts for translation and reading comprehension. Aimed at intermediate and advanced Latin students, these stories are not as technically difficult as prose excerpts from authors like Livy and Cicero. Each story is 500-1000 words in length and accompanied by a traditional illustration. A comprehensive glossary of 900 entries includes the English translation for all words used in the text.

Genres: Language, Reference

94 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 1999

Reviews

[laura mirs]

Missing Latin class

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is useful as a variation of short latin stories that are not wholly available, but it is frustrating that no very specific words are glossed so you must always search the unorganised glossary or an external dictionary. The vocabulary list does not combine well with OCR or Eduqas, but the grammar does. Overall I think this is an average resource.

[Dave Maddock · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title says it all really. The stories are short enough that one can finish one in a single sitting. My one annoyance is that the glossary does not have separate entries for verb stems that are significantly different in the perfect. There were a few times when I had to look up a verb and it took a while to find because I didn't know the 1st principal part.

Everyone knows the plots of these tales, so the reader can focus on getting comfortable reading narratives with a mixed bag of grammatical features--varied verb tenses, deponent and irregular verbs, various ablative uses, subjunctive clauses, etc. It was useful to read at this stage in my Latin studies, but I doubt I will have reason to go back to this book unless I let my Latin atrophy.

[KR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the Latin books I've worked with in my two years of Latin, this one was my absolute favorite. I loved reading the fairy tales in Latin. There's also not always the Disney versions of the tales so they're a little more entertaining to read. There a lot of fun. Even kids learning to read Latin would like this book.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, if not especially great. In have noticed some small errors in the text, as well.

[Kristen Fort · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely stories presented in Latin. One of my favorite books to turn to for downtime to gauge students' knowledge of vocabulary.

[Johnny Korianitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy read for those looking to read their first book in Latin