Vygotsky's Collected Works have spawned a new publication whose title, The Essential Vygotsky, is as pretentious as it is preposterous. Fashioned on the six volumes of the Collected Works, this book contains six sections, with a few selected chapters from each of the six volumes included in each section and, not surprisingly, with each section being introduced with a commentary. No compelling reasons are provided for the selections that constitute the book or for why they are regarded as more essential than the chapters that are excluded. In some cases, the introductory commentaries are the same as those that appear in the Collected Works, with some minor changes, and in other cases, new voices are introduced. Given that much that others may consider as essential aspects of Vygotsky's work is omitted from this book, its title seems to presume more than it can justify. But of greater concern is the fact that the very production of the book, with its unfortunate title, instantiates the very criticisms mentioned in some of the commentaries. Vygotsky's earlier books translated into English had suffered distortions precisely because of interference and tampering with the texts by editors who decided to eliminate what they considered to be non-essential in Vygotsky's writing. The Collected Works in their English translation were intended to put an end to this uncalled for and unnecessary meddling and to provide the interested reader with an opportunity to understand Vygotsky by reading his complete texts in all their complexity and with their blemishes and imperfections fully exposed.