This work was "translated from the Original Greek; with Notes Critical and Historical and includes 'A Life of Plutarch'." Owing to the many errors found in earlier editions, this 1857 Stereotype Edition was "carefully revised and corrected" and it was printed as a single volume.

D. M. Bennett, in his World's Sages, Thinkers, and Reformers, reports that "The learned Theodorus Gaza was not so very extravagant when, being asked by a friend "if learning must suffer a general shipwreck,and he had only his choice of one author to be preserved,who that author should be?" He answered,"Plutarch."

And M.Villemain .another great critic, in alluding to Plutarch’s truthful and naive minuteness in the delineation of his characters, remarks :"The immortal vivacity of the style of Plutarch, seconded by a happy choice of the noblest subjects that can occupy the imagination and the thoughts, explains the prodigious interest elicited by his historical works. He has painted man as he is; he has worthily recorded the greatest characters and most admirable actions of the human species .The attraction of such reading will never pass away;  it appeals to all ages and conditions of life; it kindles the enthusiasm of youth, and commends itself to the sober wisdom of ages."