ONLINE: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, At CCEL, Online at

Electronic Set B

Plot

This book is considered one of the reigning histories of the Roman Empire, and its author, Edward Gibbon, was awarded much praise for his rare insistence on first-hand accounts and his eloquence and irony in prose. Winston Churchill noted that when he set out to read Gibbon’s multi-volume work, he simply “devoured” it, and “rode triumphantly through it from end to end and enjoyed it all” (Churchill, My Early Life, 111). Gibbon worked tirelessly to produce this comprehensive history of one of the greatest empires of the world. He wrote in an unbiased and wholly objective manner by examining only primary sources, causing himself to be named one of the first modern historians. These volumes contain a rich abundance of fact and story, and prove to be a delightful, if weighty, read for the amateur and professorial historian alike.

Laura de Jong
CCEL Staff Writer