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Rating: 
Summary: RE: best edition available
Review: I agree that Benardete's is the best translation of this dialogue you can buy. But it was already published way back in 1986 in _Dialogues of Plato_ edited by Erich Segal. As far as I can tell, the translation in the present edition is simply a reprint of the one already published.
Rating:
Summary: RE: best edition available
Review: I agree that Benardete's is the best translation of this dialogue you can buy. But it was already published way back in 1986 in _Dialogues of Plato_ edited by Erich Segal. As far as I can tell, the translation in the present edition is simply a reprint of the one already published.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Edition of an Important Work
Review: Plato's _Symposium_ is essential to understanding, insofar as that is possible, the allure and rewards of philosophy. Benardete's translation is accurate and readable, and his essay is helpful in following the action and bringing out some of the more important features of the dialogue. Bloom's "Ladder of Love" is reprinted within, and helps to situate the _Symposium_ within the broader question of philosophy and philosophy within our world.
Rating:
Summary: best edition available
Review: This is an elegant and accurate translation (much more readable than Benardete's gnomic renditions of Theaetetus / Sophist / Statesman). Benardete's essay is also a joy (it was previously published, but in a rather obscure German edition). Bloom's commentary is a bit of a slog and very rarely surprising. The reviewer below who remarked that "if you already have Love and Friendship and a copy of the Symposium you might feel gyped [sic]" has missed the mark; the prize here is the translation itself. Now if only Chicago had included Blanckenhagen's "Stage and Actor" as well!
Rating:
Summary: If you think the classics are boring, think again
Review: This is such a good work that any attempt to summarize it inevitably falls far short of summarizing what it really is, but here goes: The Symposium is on the surface an attempt to define love. Really it is far more, and deeper. Yet it is also incredibly bawdy and silly, reading like a novel of sorts. It is far more interesting than the Republic and to my mind, more profound. Just read it; you don't even have to buy it, as every library should have a copy. On top of that, such sites as Project Gutenberg and even SparkNotes are bound to have online copies, as this work's been in the "public domain" for a good two and a half millenia, give or take. There now, you have no excuses. So what are you waiting for? Obviously if you are reading this review you are curious. Go satisfy that curiosity!
Rating: 
Summary: Plato, bloom and Benardete
Review: What you get here is 1) a new translation of Symposium by Benardete 2) Allan Bloom's Ladder of Love, which was previously published in his book Love and Friendship 3) a short, though not unworthy article by Benardete. Bloom dominates, so if you already have Love and Friendship and a copy of Symposium you might feel gyped because the only new thing is Benardete's small article. If however you don't have Love and Friendship and don't really care for Rousseau or the nineteen century novel, this book is a definite option. Bloom's book is rather unwieldly and unfocused. This book is most certainly focused.
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