Book Review - Leviathan (Penguin Classics) by Thomas Hobbes

		Leviathan (Penguin Classics) by Thomas Hobbes
Great Content, Masterful Philosopher, Horrible Read, March 1, 2014 If you could bifurcate the review, I would give 5 stars to Hobbes and his brilliant discourse on the need and virtues of absolute government, the need to have church subordinate to state, and the challenges of religion and ecclesiastical governance in general. Mind you, I don't agree with Hobbes on most of his points - especially the absolute government aspects - but find his thinking clear and cogent, well argued, and a fascinating read. Unfortunately, that brilliance is clouded and pained by Penguin's translation of the text, which retains all of it's 17th Century English "Charmme". Penguin "thoughtfully" left in all the 400+ year old spelling, grammar, capitalization and vocabulary that renders the text (already 700+ pages) a pretty ponderous read. The accessibility to the brilliance of the argument is masked by the need to translate into modern English. If this would only have been translated into modern English (and I believe some versions of Leviathan are), this would have been an extraordinary 5 star read. Read Hobbes. In a modern translation. And if there isn't one, I might just have to do it myself...