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corroonb · 09-10-2009, 11:31 AM

If you're looking for a good factual history book, then you're looking in the wrong place. Gibbon is a good writer and enjoyable to read but he is very opinionated and he lacked a lot of the sources modern historians have access to. He's very much an 'early' historian. I've only read the first two volumes so I can't really comment on the overall quality of the work.

I have the 8-volume Folio Society edition which should be quite cheap on eBay as they used to give them out for free to new members who ordered 4 books. The font size is of normal size for a folio but I imagine a paperback version will be either abridged or in multiple volumes and in both cases have very small print indeed.

09-10-2009, 11:31 AM	#2
corroonb Addict Posts: 317 Karma: 1232685 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Ireland Device: Kindle Voyage, Kobo Aura, Nexus 9	If you're looking for a good factual history book, then you're looking in the wrong place. Gibbon is a good writer and enjoyable to read but he is very opinionated and he lacked a lot of the sources modern historians have access to. He's very much an 'early' historian. I've only read the first two volumes so I can't really comment on the overall quality of the work. I have the 8-volume Folio Society edition which should be quite cheap on eBay as they used to give them out for free to new members who ordered 4 books. The font size is of normal size for a folio but I imagine a paperback version will be either abridged or in multiple volumes and in both cases have very small print indeed. Last edited by corroonb; 09-10-2009 at 11:38 AM.