Reckless Love: The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe: A Tiered Latin Reader

by Andrew Olimpi

Forbidden to marry by their quarreling parents, two Babylonian lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe, create a desperate plan to run away together in the middle of the night. However, things don’t go according to plan, and the lovers soon discover that hasty choices can have tragic consequences. Now read Ovid’s timeless story of forbidden love and bitter irony in an entirely new using “tiered” readings, simplified versions of the original story that get progressively more complex, until the reader is able to comprehend the original Latin text without laborious translation or constantly thumbing through a dictionary. This volume includes marginal glosses of less common Latin vocabulary, illustrations, and a full glossary. About the author : Andrew Olimpi lives in Dacula, Georgia with his beautiful and talented wife, Rebekah and son Ransom. When he is not writing and illustrating books, Andrew teaches Latin at Hebron Christian Academy in Dacula, Georgia. He holds a master’s degree in Latin from the University of Georgia, and currently is working on a PhD in Latin and Roman Studies at the University of Florida. He is the creator of the Comprehensible Classics series of Latin novellas aimed at beginner and intermediate readers of Latin.

147 pages, Paperback

Published January 19, 2020

Reviews

[Addie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a simplified Latin version of Ovid's Metamorphoses. It reminds me of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Two lovers; Pyramus and Thisbe fall in love and run away to be together. But because of a misunderstanding, similar to Romeo and Juliet, Pyramus and Thisbe's love story also end in tradgedy with both of them dying together. I like the fact that because this is a tiered reader, a beginner Latin student could read it, and on the fourth level, a proficient Latin student can read the original excerpt.

[Alexander Parris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this and his other tiered reader "Daedalus and Icarus" help me bring the vocabulary I already know together with the syntax of classical Latin. I think of all the learners material I have, I will repeatedly turn to these books to get my head in the right place before tackling original material.

[Zenera Shahu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty cool, I never knew Shakespeare was a fanfic writer.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

So amazed that I could read and understand the Teir 4 verses (Ovid's words) after reading tiers 1,2,3. I was almost doing a happy dance!