 Gibbon by J. W. Burrow
To read Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is no light undertaking. It covers twelve centuries, three continents, and seven volumes, 'a kind of bridge', as Thomas Carlyle wrote, 'that connects the antique with the modern ages. And how gorgeously does it swing across the gloomy and multitudinous chasm of those barbarian centuries.'
Gibbon's dedication to the great task of writing of the work is the subject of much of his short but meticulously composed memoir and the youthful essay on the study of literature. J. W. Burrow traces the development of Gibbon's vocation as 'the historian of the Roman empire', and the influences and attitudes of the mid-eighteenth century that were to shape the decline and fall. He analyses Gibbon's masterpiece in terms of four major themes: the treatment of Rome itself, through the key ideas of virtue and corruption; his largely hostile, and at the time, scandalous account of the rise of Christianity; his accounts of the way of life and character of the barbarians who overran the Empire; and his concept of civilisation and its revival at the end of the Middle Ages. The final chapter assesses Gibbon's distinctive qualities as an historian and writer, and the reasons for the survival and popularity of his work.
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