Finish it. It's an important piece of literature.
The Shrike Send a noteboard - 05/03/2010 02:22:08 PM
The way the Everyman's Library breaks up the books, I'm 127 pages into the fourth volume. Based on how biased Gibbon is against the Byzantine Empire, I'm wondering whether or not it's even worth wasting my time to read the 1700 remaining pages in volumes IV-VI. After all, the book is famous for Gibbon's scholarship on the fall of the Western Empire. I've read Norwich's three-volume history of Byzantium and I like the history of Byzantium generally, and I feel that Gibbon is going to be a frustrating read given his low opinion of Byzantium.
On the other hand, it's a historically significant work and Gibbon's style is wonderful. He pokes and makes fun and is dripping with irony, and every now and then he leaves some fun and racy graphic passages in Greek and Latin (finding the odd mentula makes me laugh like a 10-year-old seeing "fuck" in print).
What do people here think?
On the other hand, it's a historically significant work and Gibbon's style is wonderful. He pokes and makes fun and is dripping with irony, and every now and then he leaves some fun and racy graphic passages in Greek and Latin (finding the odd mentula makes me laugh like a 10-year-old seeing "fuck" in print).
What do people here think?
I do love Norwich. Have you read his single volume history of Venice? It's a great companion piece to the Byzantium trilogy. Though I still hate Venice for what they did to Constantinople in 1204. I read it and then went to see an exhibit of Venetian art at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It was spectacular.
So...I only finished half of Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
- 05/03/2010 02:11:08 AM
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I found it hard to finish
- 05/03/2010 02:10:19 PM
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The emperors tend to run together far before the middle
- 05/03/2010 02:34:55 PM
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My copy is one single book and I can't remember which volume I stopped on
- 05/03/2010 06:06:29 PM
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Ah...you probably have the abridged version.
- 05/03/2010 08:01:57 PM
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Finish it. It's an important piece of literature.
- 05/03/2010 02:22:08 PM
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I own Norwich's History of Venice (Folio Society edition) but haven't read it yet.
- 05/03/2010 02:30:55 PM
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The Dutch Republic takes a while to get into. Too much back story. Far far too long for
- 05/03/2010 04:10:20 PM
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Finish it
- 05/03/2010 04:47:15 PM
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It is well written. Of course, it's hard to stay excited about it.
- 05/03/2010 08:12:21 PM
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I need to get into Byzantium. I'm hoping to do a senior thesis on Byzantine diplomacy. *NM*
- 07/03/2010 06:42:49 AM
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