A useful tool in this digital age of ours ....

... clear and well-structured, and I wish you happy browsing ...

by Róisín Pye (Book Reviews - Studies, Volume 91 • Number 93)

Classic Texts... At your Fingertips... (Students Reference Library), edited by Patrick Rogers; CD-Rom powered by Folio Views, available from www.classictexts.net, $49.95 plus shipping and handling, or 3 different subscription rates are available at www.classictexts.net

"How weighty to me are your thoughts, 0 God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them - they are more than the sand..." So says Psalm 139, and how similar is my impression when I open up Classic Texts on the computer, except they are not perhaps all God's thoughts!

Classic Texts is a vast-ranging collection of texts from the early Greek philosophers like Hippocrates and Sophocles to John Stuart Mill and William James. Lest theologians dismiss it with the above sentence, it also features many theological works from Augustine and John Damascene right up to texts from Vatican II, along with the NRSV translation of the Bible, the King James Version and a handy New Testament in Greek! And if you're a tired student, there are always interesting classic novels to dip into; take your pick from Jane Austen, D.H. Lawrence and Oscar Wilde, to name a few....

Classic Texts is a helpful tool for the student and teacher alike. Gone are the days of searching through the tomes in the library, with the help of the librarian and the computer database of course, for the author, topic and phrase that would just nicely sum up that essay that was due two hours ago. With this CD-Rom, you can find over 300 authors at the click of your mouse. The "General Table of Contents" acts as a basic home page, like in a website, with the table linking to twelve main areas of content, as below:

the three translations of the Bible; NRSV, King James Version, and the Greek NT.
Church Fathers, from 2nd - 5th centuries, including Irenaeus, Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria.
Greco-Roman texts, featuring Julius Caesar, Aristotle and Plato among others.
Theology, with authors such as Aquinas, Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich.
Philosophy; Berkeley, and Kant being two names that send shivers up my spine!
History (& Biography), titles including "Discussions with Voltaire" by Casanova, "Journal of the Plague Year" by Defoe, and "The Revolution in Russia: 1917" by Reed.
Essays (including ones on travel) - I like the essay "Idle thoughts of an Idle Fellow" by Jerome Jerome!
Drama, Fiction and Poetry (English).

There are also brief introductions to the authors in different sections, which will be expanded in time. Currently all the authors in the Church Fathers, theologians, philosophers, playrights, poets and novelists are covered, some in more detail than others, and all written by Patrick Rogers, who edited the CD.

There are numerous ways of viewing these texts; you can access the texts by clicking on these headings, or by just accessing a list of authors in alphabetical order and going straight to their work from there. Pages of text can be viewed as an entire screen on your monitor, or you can have it and the browsing window open together. Indeed the layout of the text, including font colour and typeface can be changed by you whenever you want (this strikes me as useful to those with poor eye-sight). A very useful tool is the search facility - you can choose the parameters of text or section you wish to browse, and enter in the phrase or word you're looking for. It certainly worked for me, and replaces the endless scanning of books I had to do in a hurry to find the needle in the haystack! To learn how to work the whole CD and get the best options, the help instructions guide you through the layout and a twenty minute session would set you up and teach you well.

Classic Texts is not compatible on any other operating system except for PCs supporting Windows [ed. MAC became available Sep 2002 and a hybrid cd is now shipped] . It is also only available through the website www.classictexts.net so it is limited to those who are comfortable ordering and paying online. The editor Patrick Rogers may be contacted by email to ctexts@thefiengroup.com for further information, whether it be for using the CD for personal use or as a classroom resource for a group of students. A useful virtual tour is available on the website, as is a week-long subscription rate if you're reluctant to part with money before you have an idea of the product.

In summary: a useful tool in this digital age of ours, clear and wellstructured, and I wish you happy browsing through a copy if you purchase it!

Click here to buy now.