The topic is a very challenging and attractive one for scholarship of all ages, namely how readers, in this case young readers, should respond to and understand poetry, and most importantly, how to use poetry in their lives. Taking as a starting point Plutarch's own comments on the passages he quotes from poetry, his readers are urged to be critical and value the poetic views or doctrines on a pragmatic rather than merely artistic level, so that reading poetry will finally become of moral benefit and a preparatory stage to a deeper understanding of philosophy.

This edition of Plutarch's How to Study Poetry (De audiendis poetis) in the series of Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics is a systematic commentary and, as such, an invaluable source of information about the reception of poetry in the Hellenistic world and beyond, offered by two of the world's leading scholars in the field. The volume is a follow-up to previous work: H.'s discussion of the treatise in Critical Moments in Classical Literature (2009), and R.'s earlier translation of part of Plutarch's essay in Ancient Literary Criticism: the Principal Texts in New Translations (1972).

The extensive introduction, which is mainly H.'s work (though it is based on the draft commentary that R. had prepared but never completed), is carefully structured and consists of five chapters, which elaborate the editors' various angles of approach and anticipate some of the points raised in the main corpus of the commentary. The editors suggest (with a tinge of uncertainty) a dating in the early 80's and expand on the literary background, with special emphasis on the three dominant traditions in antiquity: Plato, Homer and the Stoics; as H. points out, the Platonic intertext seems to be always present in Plutarch's work, and ‘in many ways, Republic 2–3 and 10 set the agenda for all subsequent discussion of poetry’ (p. 4). The editors find it particularly worthwhile to discuss those instances where the Platonist Plutarch deviates from or just responds to Plato's views on poetry (cf. e.g. 15e, 16e, 17e, 18a–b, 24d, 28b–d, 36b–c, etc.). Plutarch admittedly shares with Plato the great concern for the moral value and the possible dangers that lurk in poetry for young men's minds – although he never adopts Plato's extreme proposal to ban all poetry.

The cardinal topic of literary criticism is followed throughout the commentary, where the editors expand on matters which are important for both understanding the intentions of the poets and promoting the awareness which poetry requires from the readers in order for them to distinguish between truth and (deliberate or involuntary) lie, myth and reality, mimetic interpretation and exemplary value. The editors may well be right that, ‘Plutarch's distinction between truth and falsehood is founded on an implicit distinction between prose and poetry’ (p. 84) – it is almost as if Plutarch is creating a dipole of historiography and philosophy on the one hand, and Homer and tragedy on the other hand.

In order to help the reader follow Plutarch's line of thought, and the development of his argument until – as a kind of rhetorical climax – he brings together poets and philosophers at the end of the treatise, the editors offer a short introduction to each individual chapter in their commentary. However, much of that material overlaps with the summary offered in the introduction (under ‘Structure’).

Concerning the many Homeric quotations or references, the editors show how the understanding of them presupposes a good knowledge of the Odyssey and Iliad, with the latter having a predominant place (see e.g. 16e, 17a, 17c, 23c, 24a–b, 25c, 30a–b, etc.). However, the quotations taken from tragedy nicely serve Plutarch's goal of showing that poets often offer guidance themselves to readers as to how to draw a clear distinction between poetic form and poetic content, or between the poet's voice and the character's voice. Since Plutarch is our only source for many tragic quotations, there is admittedly much uncertainty over the readings of many poetic lines. Yet the editors print, as they note, the text which they believe Plutarch wrote, even where that clearly differs from the true text of the relevant poets (p. 26, see e.g. 14d οἷς … ὑπάρχειν, οὐ γὰρ μόνον … ἐνθουσιῶσι, 17e ἐπιστήσωμεν).

The editors also pay some attention to issues of language and style, occasionally glossing the language rhythm and metre, and quite often explaining the function of the various figures of speech featuring in the treatise. Concerning the manuscript tradition, the editors declare their preference for the readings suggested by the Teubner edition, and in several cases they go on suggesting new readings which are well sustained and improve the meaning of the text (cf. e.g. 15b δίελθε instead of the Loeb's διενοήθην, 15d ἀκάτιον instead of the Loeb's ἀκάτειον; and similarly at 16a, 20a, 20e).

The proof-reading of this well-produced book has been meticulous. The book is beautifully presented, and includes a valuable bibliography, a general index and an index of passages discussed. The editors offer, with their experience and critical minds, proper guidance to both inexperienced and learned readers on several fronts: discussions of issues of textual criticism; alternative readings of the text; interpretations of technical language within specific contexts; intertextual references to other Plutarchan works; an erudite report of sources that ostensibly influenced Plutarch in moulding his own views about poetry; a stimulating analysis of poetic quotations and allusions; an implicit, or, at times, less implicit mapping of the role of the reader who hears/reads poetry – one can find here all that one would be looking for when reading this disquisition about poetry and when (perhaps also) attempting to place it in a wider Plutarchan context or, generally, in the literary context of the Greco-Roman world. The volume achieves what it was meant to achieve, as outlined in the Preface: ‘it will not only make this work better known and more accessible, but it will also encourage modern readers to reflect upon the presuppositions which they themselves bring to their reading, and upon the history of those presuppositions’ (p. vii). The wide spectrum of ideas, textual traditions, methodological and linguistic approaches developed in this volume reinforce its authority while encouraging the reader to think further about poetry's fundamental role for moral education in general.