This work, as is made clear in the Preface (pp.ix-x), is the culmination of Stray's many years in studying the perception and pedagogy of Classics. This work, part of OUP's ‘Classical Presences’ series, which investigates the use and abuse of Classics (p.ii), contains both previously-published and unpublished material, and despite Stray's assertion that the unified edition is intended to be more than the sum of its parts, it reads better as a series of articles, which may be selected out of order, to be read as interest dictates. Stray is reflective on his collected work, and accordingly authoritative; I emphatically recommend this work to any Classicist who is interested in perspectives on Victorian and Edwardian-era education, though it should be noted that this is no introductory volume; Stray is commanding both in breadth and depth of his investigation.

Of immediate interest to the teacher of Classics is the third section of the book, on pedagogy in schools. This section contains chapters from a variety of perspectives, and many aspects both familiar and interesting to the teacher, including but certainly not limited to: the optimal layout of a classroom (pp.263-264); the birth of the modern concept of a textbook (pp.279-280); the challenges of maintaining authority over students (pp.289-290); the concept of Classics for all (pp.292-293), though it might be noted that these are often drawn from highly specific examples, and may be of more interest than use.

I would also take some small issue with the book's terminal date; Stray certainly does discuss various aspects of Classical scholarship and reception in the 20th century, but a teacher looking for discussion of the more current issues in Classical pedagogy will be disappointed. There are, for instance, three references to the Cambridge Latin Course (pp.ix, 256, 341), none to the Oxford Latin Course, none to L. A. Wilding, none to Pat Story, none to James Morwood, none to Maurice Balme. I would suggest that Stray's interest in the Classical classroom ends in 1960, perhaps in the knowledge that these totems of elementary Classical education in the late 20th and early 21st century are much discussed elsewhere. However, the chapter on Kennedy's Primer, for instance (pp.307-325), is an excellent account of the last flourish of teaching by precept, and is ripe for comparison with the post-Cambridge Latin Course world.