"Bradley's Arnold" Latin Prose Composition

by Thomas Kerchever Arnold, George Granville Bradley, J.F. Mountford

This reprinted volume, part of the Caratzas College Classical Series, is the 'sine qua non' for all who would attempt to write faultless classical Latin Prose. It is far more detailed in explaining syntactical nuances, in its exemplification and in the range of its exercise. Bradley's Arnold remains as essential source.

Genres: Classics, Textbooks, Reference, Nonfiction

443 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

1800-1853

Reviews

[Annaliese]

The Latin learner's Bible

[Ian Jones]

I bought this book in 1997 and it’s been by my side ever since. I’m reviewing it now because I’ve just read it for the umpteenth time. This is the most comprehensive manual I’ve come across for Latin composition. There are more modern books but they lack the level of detail that you’ll find here. And even if you have no intention of writing letters to your friends, your autobiography or the history of your neighbourhood in the Latin of the first century BCE, you’ll still find Bradley invaluable for reading Latin. It gives you a better understanding of what the great Latin writers were trying to do. And a better appreciation of their talents. A couple of examples. If you’ve ever struggled to decipher indirect speech, the material here on oratio obliqua will set you on the right path. Same with conditional sentences. You’ll be able to grasp why the author is using the subjunctive here and the indicative there.
The book has plenty of exercises after each section, if you want to try your hand at composing sentences or short paragraphs. These have helpful footnotes to give you a hint about what you should be doing. At the end there are 120 longer passages. Here you get no clues at all. You must jump in and see how far you can swim. However, there is a preliminary hints section with guidance on tricky issues like word order, metaphors and the concept of translating thoughts rather than words. There is also plenty of pointers throughout the book about knotty problems like abstract nouns, the Roman calendar and how Latin tenses are often used differently from the English variety e.g. the future and future perfect.
The focus on following the patterns set by Cicero, Caesar and Livy might seem irrelevant or old-fashioned now. I’m not sure if school or university exam boards still insist that grammar and word use should be as in those three authors to the exclusion of all others. On that note, Bradley says Cicero’s use of the subjunctive should be favoured over Livy’s. I have read elsewhere that in the half century between Cicero and Livy, the use of the subjunctive broadened quite considerably. Perhaps Bradley didn’t approve. He also insists that you should organise your sentences in the periodic style of Cicero and Livy, not the later pithy style of Tacitus. I think today, if we were all writing Latin emails and tweets, we would rather be pithy than periodic though.

[Phillip]

Bradley's Arnold covers the elements of Latin grammar and syntax methodically, from the basic to the complex, and teaches students how to put them together to write accurately in Latin. Highly Recommended!

[Debi]

I picked this book up again this year since I have a student who wants me to help him work his way through the exercises. I have to say, old fashioned as it is, there is no better Latin prose composition book around. Every time I return to Bradley's Arnold, I learn more.

This book is way up on my list....one of my all time favorites.

[Colin]

There is no experience quite like doing Latin prose composition with Bradley's Arnold. You'll learn prose comp., no doubt, but your mind will be permanently twisted as a result. "There is no one but knows that he is of such a kind . . ."