This new volume from the series Ancient Christian Writers is a welcome addition to the works of Evagrius Ponticus available in English. The actual text, in both Greek and English, occupies only 25 pages (pp. 41–66) out of 398. It is a strange text, consisting in 137 brief sentences of enigmatic proverb‐like sayings. The other 373 pages of exposition are therefore not only welcome but essential. In this, Dr Driscoll has provided an admirable addition to the discussion of the works of Evagrius, one of the major monastic writers of the early Church.

The introduction contains a discussion of the reliability of the Greek text used here, concluding that the 1913 critical edition by H.Gressmann from five Greek manuscripts (from 12^th to 17^th centuries) is, with some reference to later work, still standard. In part one, the Greek text of Ad Monachos and Driscoll's English translation are given. In part two, the structure of the text is examined, showing that these proverbs are far from haphazard but are presented in a highly sophisticated order. Part three gives a perspective on Evagrius as a writer, positioning his work within the setting of 4^th‐century Egypt, and part four returns to a close reading of the text, proverb by proverb, expounding many of them in detail, as part of the whole of Evagrius's thought; as Driscoll says, this is to be reading ‘Evagrius with Evagrius’(p. x). A select bibliography and an index complete the volume.

It is clear that this collection of proverbs from Evagrius is of importance for the understanding of the Evagrius corpus as a whole: it is also clear that it forms a part of our knowledge of early monasticism. For instance, such sayings as ‘better a man lying down to sleep than a monk keeping vigil with idle thoughts’(p. 50) echo the severe comments of the Desert Fathers about the need for inner commitment rather than outward show. Driscoll, however, suggests that these texts are of interest to a wider audience than monks and scholars, with such sayings as ‘if you imitate Christ you will become blessed. Your soul will die his death and it will not derive evil from its flesh; instead your exodus will be like the exodus of a star and your resurrection will glow like the sun’(p. 44).

The translation aims to follow Origen's dictum, and be both word for word and sense for sense, an excellent plan though in this case giving the shape of the Greek words means at times that the English sense appears somewhat stilted. This is, however, in all other ways an admirable presentation of a text central to the study of early Christian monasticism, illuminated by the extensive commentary on every phrase of Evagrius.