The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Volume 2

As I’ve already written two panegyric reviews of Gibbon, I’ll keep this one short. In fact, I only want to say something briefly about prose style. Anyone who peruses a few books on writing will notice some similarities. We are advised to write short sentences, to use simple words, and generally to......more

Extraordinary like Part 1, Gibbon takes us from the period following Constantine forward about 600 years to the 11th century. It is masterful writing full of sarcasm and humor which helps one muddle through the thousands of names and dynasties. I really enjoyed his discussion of the Goths and the Hu......more

Ah, the paradoxes of contemporary publishing: Gibbon is generally divided into three books, with two 'volumes' per book; here we have volumes three and four. That makes perfectly good sense, on the one hand, since six books would be very expensive and two books would each be unwieldy. However, due t......more

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Luego de la ciclópea y a la vez, mágica y estimulante labor de leer las 1.178 páginas que componen este volumen II de la "Decadencia y caída del Imperio Romano" de su señoría Edward Gibbon, es importante resaltar que la presente reseña sólo se ocupará de la formidable y soberbia edición de Atalanta......more