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The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Penguin Classics)
 
 
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The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Penguin Classics) [Abridged] (Paperback)

by Edward Gibbon (Author), David Womersley (Introduction) "It is not my intention to detain the reader by expatiating on the variety, or the importance of the subject, which I have undertaken to..." (more)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 848 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; Abridged Ed edition (28 Aug 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140437649
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140437645
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 100,939 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #22 in  Books > History > Essays, Journals, Letters & True Accounts > 16th-18th Centuries
    #52 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > Poetry > By Period > 16th to 18th Centuries

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Product Description

Product Description
Spanning thirteen centuries from the age of Trajan to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, DECLINE & FALL is one of the greatest narratives in European Literature. David Womersley's masterly selection and bridging commentary enables the readerto acquire a general sense of the progress and argument of the whole work and displays the full variety of Gibbon's achievement.

About the Author
Edward Gibbon (1737-94) studied briefly at Magdalen College, Oxford and at Lausanne, Switzerland before being elected to Parliament in 1774. DECLINE & FALL was written over 12 years and established his reputation as a pre-eminent Classical historian. David Womersley, Official Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Jesus College Oxford, is the author of The Transformation of the Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire (CUP) and edited the 3-volume edition of DECLINE & FALL for Penguin Classics.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
It is not my intention to detain the reader by expatiating on the variety, or the importance of the subject, which I have undertaken to treat; since the merit of the choice would serve to render the weakness of the execution still more apparent, and still less excusable. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Awe-inspiring account of the lost Roman dream, 20 Feb 2001
By A Customer
At the beginning of this book the Roman empire stands unconquerable - arguably the most successful civilisation ever; by the end Constantinople is falling and the last Caesar is able to muster only a handful of soldiers for the defence of his degenerate regime. The scope of this book is awesome. It is hard to believe that the original text was written over 200 years ago. Gibbon's clarity of thought and arguement is superb.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars true greatness, 6 Aug 2007
By E. Robb (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
Gibbon's ultra-fine and tortious delve into the history of Rome wrecked his faith in Christianity (he figured out they just made it up as they went along). This book (the full version) still retains the esteem of being among the list of books banned by the Vatican in its Index Librorium prohibitorum.

The text unfolds eloquently in the grand august language that set the standard for all subsequent big histories.

The quality of style is evident from the beginning as your fears of being swamped in a mass of cold detail and chronology are quickly erased. The initial encounter is one of profound eloquence, deep insights and detailed stories grounded in their appropriate context. The text is full of reflective asides on the nature of human beings, the corruptive nature of power, the fragile frame of human unity, and above all the sheer hypocrisy of the dogmas used by ruling forces to give either an ideological or credal basis for their despotism.

I absolutely loved this book, kept in my bag, at my bedside and read it bit by bit, on and off, for over a year. Admittedly, i'm not able to recall the names of all the emperors, all the battles or recite much of the factual instances narrated...but that wasn't the point. It was a journey, rather like taking occasional walks with a wise old man.

That said, i don't want to belittle the technical merits of this book at the expense of singing its praises as a piece of sweeping profundity. It IS a brilliant and detailed history book, in the sense that it tells you what happened, who did it and what the siginificance of the instance was.

You can just use it a reference book by simply picking out a theme from either the index or the contents and soon find yourself respectably versed in an important area of European/near eastern history.

I suspect most people will buy this, as i did, with no intent of reading it cover to cover, but once i got started - it was just so engrossing and rich in style that it became a pleasure to read. I must note that some parts, especially long supplements in relation to the agriculture, monetary and admin systems of certain epochs were boring (but i skipped those).

....come to think of it, i did skip large sections of this book - but it is over 800 pages long and its too much to ask anyone to read every word.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars We are all Romans, 9 Aug 2008
By John Ferngrove "Cirenor" (Hants UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I have read much history in the last few years but no other historical writer has moved me quite like Gibbon. I have shed tears more than once whilst engaged on this extraordinary journey. Until now, my reading of history has been an effort to forge a dim and tenuous link with peoples of the past in the hope of entering, in some small way, their minds and worlds. With Gibbon though my kinship with the generations has been bought vividly to life and made it all too clear, that for good or ill, men and women are the same in all times and all places and that all history is just one story. On a day when fresh war and misery has just erupted in a place which the Romans would have called Colchis (Georgia) it is impossible not to feel that this is the just the same story endlessly repeating itself. Rome rises and falls again and again. The periods of peace, prosperity and freedom precious islands in the midst of chaos that we so easily take for granted. For some of us the barbarians are safely thousands of miles away until the day whereby, through sloth and ignorance, we wake to find them at the gates.

This is no easy read of course. The language, whilst exquisite, verges on the archaic. But for those willing to embark on the journey you will find out as much about the world we live in today as that of supposed antiquity.
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3.0 out of 5 stars No pain, no gain
This isn't an easy ride: it took me months AND I got lost among all the emperors! Having said that it has wonderful anecdotes and sweeping overviews that leave you quite out of... Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2001

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