| Product Summary | | Format: Hardcover | | ISBN: 9780679435938 | | Publisher: A. A. Knopf | | Publish Date: 10/1/1994 | | Buy.com Sku: 30116907 | | Item#: RL3LRG | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 8664 | | Dimensions (in Inches) 8.5H x 5.5L x 4.25T |
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| | | 'Gibbon is a kind of bridge that connects the ancient with the ancient with the modern ages, ' noted Thomas Carlyle. 'And how gorgeously does it swing across the gloomy and tumultuous chasm of these barbarous centuries.' Indeed, Gibbon, the supreme historian of the Enlightenment--the illustrious scholar who envisioned history as a branch of literature--seemed almost predestined to write his monumental account of the Roman Empire's terrible self-destruction.
Annotation:
A three-volume Modern Library edition.
| PraiseTimes Literary Supplement
"David Womersley's edition supersedes Bury's and all others....this edition gives us the best text we have ever had, a vigorously intelligent introduction and an indispensible collection of ancillary documents: work of the highest calibre, reader-friendly in printing style and deployment of text and apparatus, and handsome in physical format." - Claude Rawson 07/14/1995Washington Post Book World
"Those who enjoy epic grandeur might...seek out these volumes of Gibbon's 'Decline' freshly edited by David Womersley, with a leisurely, rich and perspicuous introduction. Wormersley emphasizes Gibbon the philosophical historian, noting the tendency of modern admirers to overemphasize that delicious ironic and forceful style." 12/15/1996 |
| Author Bio| Edward Gibbon | | Edward Gibbon came from an upper-middle-class family, the eldest of seven children. Gibbon's six siblings all died in infancy. He enrolled in Magdalen College, University of Oxford at the age of 15, and shortly thereafter became a Catholic. His father then sent him to Lausanne, where he lived with a Calvinist minister who swayed the young Gibbon back to Protestantism. Gibbon spent nearly five years in Switzerland, returning to England in 1758 and choosing to devote his life to studying and writing. In 1764, Gibbon visited Rome. While there, he was inspired to begin his great work, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". These five volumes remain both a great work of history and a masterpiece of English prose. In 1774, after settling in London two years earlier, Gibbon was elected to parliament, where he spent 12 years as commissioner of trade and plantations. In spite of the fact that he was often ridiculed for his vanity, lack of height (he stood less than five feet tall), and extreme obesity, Gibbon was respected in English intellectual circles. Gibbon's lesser-known "Memoirs" is one of the most interesting autobiographies of its time. |
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