/lit/ - Literature

So I'm reading Plato Selections, and I'm a bit confused:

Are all of platos dialogues his own words put into fictionalized versions of the people in his life, or are the early dialogues word-for-word transcriptions of socretes, and the later dialogues plato's own words?

Hey /lit/,

I'm looking to get a basic knowledge and history of philosophy, which books would you suggest?

The only books I consider I've read that has any connection to philosophy would be Symposium and the Poetics.

>>5384710
Check out this quote from a certified Patrician, for example:

"Poetry is for faggots",
- Plato, The Republic, Book X.

And mind: Plato was referring to Homer and the tragedians, who were actually decent poets.