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A review by brynhammond
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume I by Edward Gibbon, David Womersley
5.0
I'll never find here my edition, which is a cute set of seven little hardbacks, 6 inches high, from 1904. I thought it would be charming to read this work in such old-fashioned books.
I have to report that my bookmark is at p.476 of volume four. That's well more than halfway. But that was the consistent read; I've dipped in, and the portions nearest to my heart -- say, on Attila and on Zingis as he calls him, and on other assorted barbarians -- Theodoric was a great story greatly told -- these I have dwelt on and come back to. I need to forge ahead and read about the Turks and Byzantium. Why do I spend my time on lesser books?
Just thought to add this since Napier's Attila hf that I'm into at the moment reminds me it's 'still the greatest single work of history', and strike me down if I ever doubted that. In English, at any rate. His English, as you know by acquaintance or by legend, is that of a great writer. I was chuffed that Gibbon has a chapter in a book on epic in English that I have: [b:The English Epic and its Background|16137344|The English Epic and its Background|E.M.W. Tillyard|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352410127s/16137344.jpg|3287578]. E.M.W. Tillyard thought his project qualifies as an epic. You thought there was only Paradise Lost, didn't you? I enjoyed the Tillyard book, and there Gibbon stands as the last chapter, the last attempt at an English epic: "he could and did contemplate a work of history in the spirit in which poets had contemplated their epic poems."
There are sentences I have by heart -- and as with poetry, the cadence helps with that. One is this on Zingis: The Catholic inquisitors of Europe, who defended nonsense by cruelty, might have been confounded by the example of a barbarian, who anticipated the lessons of philosophy and established by his laws a system of pure theism and perfect toleration. Open-minded chap, Edward Gibbon. Except, possibly, on Catholics. Indeed he's notoriously unfond of Christianity, and its part in history. And his writings on the barbarians, nowadays, can offend. Still, you don't see sentences like that on Zingis too often, even now. He's willing to admire the Zingises and the Attilas and others, and in the Tacitus tradition perhaps, see virtues in the lifestyles of Goths and Ostrogoths.
I have to report that my bookmark is at p.476 of volume four. That's well more than halfway. But that was the consistent read; I've dipped in, and the portions nearest to my heart -- say, on Attila and on Zingis as he calls him, and on other assorted barbarians -- Theodoric was a great story greatly told -- these I have dwelt on and come back to. I need to forge ahead and read about the Turks and Byzantium. Why do I spend my time on lesser books?
Just thought to add this since Napier's Attila hf that I'm into at the moment reminds me it's 'still the greatest single work of history', and strike me down if I ever doubted that. In English, at any rate. His English, as you know by acquaintance or by legend, is that of a great writer. I was chuffed that Gibbon has a chapter in a book on epic in English that I have: [b:The English Epic and its Background|16137344|The English Epic and its Background|E.M.W. Tillyard|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352410127s/16137344.jpg|3287578]. E.M.W. Tillyard thought his project qualifies as an epic. You thought there was only Paradise Lost, didn't you? I enjoyed the Tillyard book, and there Gibbon stands as the last chapter, the last attempt at an English epic: "he could and did contemplate a work of history in the spirit in which poets had contemplated their epic poems."
There are sentences I have by heart -- and as with poetry, the cadence helps with that. One is this on Zingis: The Catholic inquisitors of Europe, who defended nonsense by cruelty, might have been confounded by the example of a barbarian, who anticipated the lessons of philosophy and established by his laws a system of pure theism and perfect toleration. Open-minded chap, Edward Gibbon. Except, possibly, on Catholics. Indeed he's notoriously unfond of Christianity, and its part in history. And his writings on the barbarians, nowadays, can offend. Still, you don't see sentences like that on Zingis too often, even now. He's willing to admire the Zingises and the Attilas and others, and in the Tacitus tradition perhaps, see virtues in the lifestyles of Goths and Ostrogoths.