A commendable endeavour - Rated 
Though the description provided is wholly inadequate (and prospective purchasers will of course check what they are getting), at this price and as the 'new full edition' this must be the complete 12-volume set -- the latest revision of Butler's classic Lives (arranged according to the church calendar with one volume for each month), that takes the post-Vatican II changes into account and supersedes the Thurston and Attwater edition.
It includes not only the saints who come in the missal but also a generous selection of the thousands of saints listed in the Roman Martyrology. It must be said that for most purposes it would be more useful to have either a volume limited to the saints in the missal or a full dictionary of saints arranged alphabetically. The number of users who want to read a number of saints' lives each morning (as I do) must be few.
This is a much needed update on earlier editions, but with certain flaws. It appeared (from 1995 to 2000) before the revision of the Roman Martyrology was complete, and there have been changes in the liturgical calendar as well, with the result that some saints, commemorated at mass, are either under the wrong day or missing altogether. The Supplementary Volume published in 2005 was not as helpful here as it might have been.
Secondly, the scholarship is unequal. The writers were each given the saints of one month to cover, with the result that most of the time they were writing on historical periods about which they had no particular knowledge. There was a team of experts to consult, but the extent of their involvement is unclear. The result, for example, is that, while the accounts of New Testament saints are admirable, the accounts of the early martyrs show no awareness of the present informed consensus about the nature and incidence of persecution. Inevitably there are howlers, of which my favourite is the description of Boethius (who wrote his masterpiece in prison, before execution) as 'a retired civil servant who had written the Consolation of Philosophy and other works'.
The classic compendium of hagiography - Rated 
I am not religious, but over the course of the years I have developed a fascination for the lives of Catholic saints. This compendium is a wonderful resource and a browser's delight. I recommend it very highly to anyone with a serious interest on the subject.
A useful reference, but not without problems - Rated 
Little of Alban Butler's work survives in this revised edition--if the reader wants to have access to Butler's own words, with all his wonderful moral judgments, this is not the edition to consult. That said, Thurston and Attwater have done an exhaustive job of updating Butler's original work, including the addition of bibliographical references (mostly referring to foreign-language works) and attempting to sort through the historical inaccuracies that necessarily plague any study of the saints. As they admit, however, this is not meant to be a scholarly reference work.This collection includes more saints than any other that I have seen, and so it is a very useful and interesting work in itself. While Butler's wonderful 18th-century prose, so unfamiliar and even harsh to our modern ears, has been taken out in this revision, the result is not always easy to read. Some of the language is clumsy and poorly-constructed, but one gets used to it and it is not a major fault. In addition, the binding is not of the highest quality. The biggest failing of this edition--which is not the fault of the revisers, of course--is that many of the feast days of particular saints have been changed since the Second Vatican Council. An updated edition that takes this into account would be welcome, but all in all this is a useful collection.
A timeless classic that every Christian can appreciate - Rated
This second edition stripped away Butler's original verbocity, while keeping the beauty of the original prose. What's left is a compendium of the greatest men and women ever to walk the planet. Conveniently arranged for daily readings. This is a timeless classic that deserves the attention of anyone and everyone.
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