?In this exemplary study of Cassiodorus, O?Donnell offers its a biography of the man, an analysis of his writings, and a reevaluation of Cassiodorus? contributions to western culture. The search for the man emerges from the meticulous and often brilliant study of the literature. (?) O?Donnell establishes from skilful inference and ?educated guesses? an impressively persuasive account of Cassiodorus? life. Perhaps the most important result of the biographical study is the portrait of a single personality: there was no radical division, O?Donnell argues, in Cassiodorus? spiritual life between his years of political service and those of religious endeavour. (?) O?Donnell considerable gifts are perhaps most distinguished in the practice of literary criticism. In discussing the various works of Cassiodorus he has avoided the pitfall of merely summarising the contents in order to flesh out the portrait of his subject. Instead, O?Donnell persistently seeks in each work for the ?mind of Cassiodorus?, a search which becomes a relentless pursuit for the motivation of each work. In each case the motivation is discovered primarily by means of a convincing analysis of structure and style. The ?Variae? (?) receive perhaps the most memorable analysis. (?) In his evaluation of the contributions of Cassiodorus to western culture, O?Donnell is, on the whole, negative. First he refuses to see Cassiodorus as the ?avid humanist student of secular learning he is m=often made out to be (p.205). (?) Second, O?Donnell denies the general assumption that Cassiodorus was instrumental in establishing the practice of manuscript copying in the monasteries, and especially that he was responsible for the preservation of manuscripts of the secular classics. Finally, O?Donnell does not believe that Cassiodorus had any vision of a monastic program for all Europe; he wrote simply for his own monastery, and his influence on medieval culture was insignificant.? (ROBERT D. SIDER in The Review of Metaphysics, 1985, pp.369-370).