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The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, David P. Womersley (Abridged by), David P. Womersley
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January 7, 2025
This is a Penguin abridgement from a few decades ago, condensing the narrative into 1000 pages or so but while keeping twenty or so entire chapters, with bridging chapters of short quotes and summaries between these. I can't vouch for how accurate it all is as a summary and at one point, the entire Crusades are leapt over in a few sentences and Charlemagne barely appears - but the complete chapters are really lots of fun, with that great, beefy, vigorous 18th century prose, and an unusual and good combination of nuanced writing and strong assertion, especially on let's say 'complex' figures like Julian the Apostate, Justinian and 'Mahomet'. *Might* try and read the whole thing after this. One day.
Displaying 1 of 1 review