"For a long time, the Seventh Letter has cried out for an interpreter to fully appraise its importance and richness of meaning. It has found that commentator in James M. Redfield. This elegant, insight-filled volume--augmented by crucial chapters of Plutarch's Life of Dion, in which the scale of Plato's Syracusan debacle becomes inescapably clear--will help readers see Plato's life, and read his dialogues, in a completely new light." --James Romm, James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics, Bard College.