I will suggest to you, my uncaring friend, something obvious and expected. It is an action that someone such as I am always suggests. I will say that reading Plato's Politeia ought to be done by reading the ancient language itself. I suggest no commentary by anyone, no critical apparatus, no notes at the end. One of the many benefits derived from this exercise is the elegance with which the work comes to you. There is something technical and interpretive, of course, in a translation. Even when reading a translation without any skill in the ancient Greek tongue makes it clear that there is something lost. The work has been interpreted, reinterpreted, interpreted again, reinterpreted again, and overinterpreted, It is the nauseousness of overinterpretation that we now suffer.
And yet the issues and the suggestions in the work still ring true and have sound measure to them. Best yet: there the suggestion is that the city is outlined, not complete. Its completion comes from the primary philosophical effort.