Diogenes Laertius presented afresh with all the generosity, visual richness, and breadth of reference he deservesa wonderful edition. (Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Café and How to Live)

In this superbly produced and edited volume, the compendious work of the learned Diogenes Laertius at last receives the prominence that his unique contribution to our knowledge and understanding of ancient philosophy requires. The admirable translation by doyenne Pamela Mensch is accompanied by a full apparatus of the latest scholarship, including essays by over a dozen of the most eminent philosophers and historians of philosophy of our own day. (Paul Cartledge, author of Democracy: A Life)

Diogenes Laertius is not Nietzsches dim-witted watchman of the history of Greek philosophy, but a fascinating and underrated figure. This is a wonderful edition, brilliantly translated, with a helpful introduction and accompanying set of essays by first-rate scholars. Although a precious source for many ancient philosophers, especially Epicurus, Diogenes Laertius is much more than a dull compiler. For anyone interested in the relations between philosophy and life, this book remains an excellent, accessible, and hugely entertaining starting point. Highly recommended. (Simon Critchley, author of The Book of Dead Philosophers)

Diogenes Laertius' Lives provides a uniquely valuable and entertaining window on early Western philosophyif it is used wisely. This welcome edition and translation by Pamela Mensch and James Miller, together with its substantial accompanying essays, enables contemporary readers to make the most of it. (Anthony Gottlieb, author of The Dream of Reason and The Dream of Enlightenment)

This splendid new translation of Diogenes Laertius' Lives is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the therapeutic legacy of ancient Greek philosophy. Quirky, notoriously unreliable, relentlessly curious, it is also magnificent bedside reading, still able after many centuries to instruct and delight. (Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern)

At last, thanks to Pamela Mensch's elegant and faithful translation, we can enjoy Diogenes Laertius' history of Greek philosophy for its own sake, as a wonderful compendium of doctrine and lore, as well as for the precious information (and sometimes misinformation) it provides about everything from the Pre-Socratics to Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and Epicurus. The notes are crisp and clear, illustrations are apt and abundant, and the translation is based on the most authoritative edition of the Greek text. It is a wonderful achievement. (David Konstan, author of Beauty: The Fortunes of an Ancient Greek Idea)

Lives and the Eminent Philosophers of Diogenes Laertius is a crucial source for much of what we know about the origins of philosophy in Greece. The work covers a larger number of figures and a longer period of time than any other extant ancient source, from the Presocratic Thales to Epicurus. Despite its importance, a complete translation of the work has not appeared in English since 1925. Working from the new, authoritative Greek text established by Tiziano Dorandi (CUP, 2013), translator Pamela Mensch's goal has been to render Diogenes into an English prose that is fluent yet faithful to the original Greek. The annotations are aimed at the general reader rather than the specialist, and explain the various references to people, places, practices, and countless mythological characters as they occur. The translation is accompanied by dozens of artworks to illustrate the ongoing influence of many of the philosophical anecdotes compiled by Diogenes, and by newly commissioned essays by James Allen, Anthony Grafton, Ingrid Rowland, and others to shed light on Diogenes' historical and intellectual contexts as well as his rich reception history.