The simplicity and beauty of Cuore render it of unusual fitness for use as an elementary text for those who are beginning the study of Italian. Owing to its peculiar form, I have been able to omit certain portions of it — mostly letters — without at all injuring the unity of the book. As the book now stands it is practically an Italian Reader. The monthly stories not only give variety of interest, but furnish an excellent opportunity for that very important exercise in all language study — sight reading. A large number of the notes are devoted to the explanation of idiomatic expressions which the ordinary Italian-English dictionaries pass over in silence. The lack of a really good dictionary has made these explanations more numerous.¹