《书目》(Booklist)书评

He who afforded the opportunity to Brush Up Your Shakespeare (Harper, 1990) now proffers the means for dusting off one's classical learning, or more likely, now that Homer's known primarily as Bart Simpson's Dad, starting to acquire some. Quite a cohort of English idioms originated in Greek and Roman literature--not just words and phrases (e.g., mentor, poetic license, purple passages, canary) but many hoary old maxims ("put your shoulder to the wheel," "call a spade a spade," "make haste slowly," etc.). Proceeding in a broad literary-historical chronology from Homer to the Roman historians, Macrone shows where dozens of terms came from and how they entered into English usage. Those noddingly acquainted with classical literature and philosophy may most enjoy the book, but if someone is spurred by its revelations to actually read some--heck, one!--of the sources he cites, then bless you, Mr. Macrone! ~--Ray Olson