Gibbon's

I have a notion of making my next big reading project to get through the whole of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a chapter at a time.

The Missing Episodes nwhyte 2009

As for the central character, though, I found Gibbon's Julian more interesting and convincing than Wilson's.

June Books 12) Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson nwhyte 2010

Rather fortuitously I read this novel while also working through Gibbon's chapters in The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire on Julian the Apostate, the mid-fourth century Roman emperor who tried to reverse his uncle's adoption of Christianity and failed.

June Books 12) Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson nwhyte 2010

Also her Septimius Severus comes to life as a much more sympathetic character than Gibbon's portrayal, though still believes in astrology.

April Books 1) The Emperor's Babe, by Bernardine Evaristo 50books_poc 2010

For Gibbon's past Roman Empire, the big catastrophe is yet to come, though he sees his Julian as the last, lost hope of reversing the Decline and Fall.

June Books 12) Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson nwhyte 2010

My 2009 reading ended on a high note, with Edward Gibbon's short and entertaining autobiography, telling the story of his life and of how he wrote the Decline and Fall.

2009 books poll reading_gibbon 2010

IA: Back in the 1940s I decided to write a series of historical stories of the future, a tale of the fall of the galactic empire and the interregnum that came before the rise of the second galactic empire, and I'll tell you frankly, I got the idea from Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Great voices of science fiction 2011

And as starts go, this is an instant classic -- a vigorous mediation on the groove created by Geoff Barrow's ebbing dub beats and Beth Gibbon's willowy, wounded vocals, which glide over the arrangements like a hovercar, and her voice is the first thing I ask about as the Guinness is poured.

Michael Vazquez: The Story of Geoff Barrow & Portishead [VIDEO] Michael Vazquez 2011

The Penguin edition is not the text made famous by Gibbon's friend Lord Sheffield, but a new (well, 1983) treatment of the manuscripts by Penguin's editor Betty Radice, who steps from behind the curtain and explains her methodology in an interesting introduction.

2009 books poll reading_gibbon 2010

If you are interested in reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire over the next nine months, please go along and join.

August Books 50) The British Museum Book of Ancient Egypt (edited by A.J. Spencer) astraether 2009