The Revised Latin Primer

by Benjamin Hall Kennedy

Described by Mary Beard in The Independent as 'the Rolls Royce of textbooks', Kennedy's classic 1888 guide has remained the pre-eminent Latin reference grammar in schools and universities for well over a century. This is a reissue of the first edition, which appeared the year before the author's death. Benjamin Hall Kennedy (1804–1889), headmaster of Shrewsbury School for thirty years before becoming Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge, was probably assisted by his daughters in producing this completely revised version of an earlier, unsuccessful publication. From tables of nouns and verbs to obscure nuances of style, the book covered all the key points of Latin grammar and was detailed, well-organised and easy to use. This original Victorian edition will fascinate present-day students and teachers of Latin and historians of education.

Genres: Language, Nonfiction, Reference, Classics, History

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

1804-1889

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I'm not really sure you could say that I "read" this, but gee, I spent a lot of time turning the pages! Really, really useful. Essential, even!

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um, great if you enjoy Latin.

[Jeff Netting · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very dense and difficult book, but it works well as a reference guide. It took me a painfully long time to get through. It’s highly compact, with a lot of information, no drawn-out explanations, and no exercises. That being said, it belongs to a different era, and I don’t know how useful it would be as a textbook for learning. I found the explanation of concepts I wasn’t familiar with confusing, though it does have some ingenious rules and mnemonics, and it was helpful in shoring up things I already knew.

A good reference guide, though not great for learning.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

not sure i would endorse it
but the following explains why it's useful for many


Five Books
The best books on Learning Latin
recommended by Harry Mount

So the best books on learning Greek for our next interview! Harry, let’s move on to—I don’t know what you call it—but what I certainly know as the Bible. I have here Kennedy’s Shorter Latin Primer though I imagine you recommend the full-length version?

Harry: Yes, there’s the blue one, which I’ve got here and there’s a later one, with a red cover. They’re both fantastic. It is the Bible because it has all the conjugations of the verbs and the declensions of the nouns. It also has, in very concise form, practically all the rules of grammar and syntax. It’s a very dry book. You’re not going to find any jokes in it, but absolutely everything is there. It’s the ultimate rulebook of Latin. It’s actually very short. It’s a very thin volume, because there’s no excess verbiage at all.

It’s so efficient. It’s so economical. It’s my favourite book.

Harry: It’s amazing. Kennedy was, I think, a Latin master in Liverpool. My father told me that because every year whole new generations of school children bought the book, the borders of Lake Geneva were filled with huge villas lived in by people like Kennedy, Hillard and Botting — all these people who wrote Latin grammar books before it had this great decline. They became, very early on, standard books, because they were beautifully worked out to be extremely efficient in the delivery of information. Kennedy is very concise, but it has the answer to every problem in Latin in it.

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note there is a US edition and a UK edition
with some changes in the American edition