Amazing deal

[MartinParish]

Can you believe it...all six volumes of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire on Kindle for just $0.99!!! A thousand-plus page book in six volumes - the man's life work, as it happens - and on sale for just under a buck. Whether you'll be able to plough through the whole thing (Kindle or no Kindle) is another question, given that whatever talents as a writer Gibbon may have possessed, brevity certainly wasn't among them. Moreover, the customer reviews all mention some problems with the TOC. But hey, at the end of the day, for $0.99, I'm not expecting perfection...

[ATDrake]

Free on Gutenberg, all 6 vols in one package, with linked footnotes and double TOC. Works a treat in Firefox's EPubReader add-on.

[Worldwalker]

<snark> Ah, but with the Gutenberg edition, you don't get DRM restrictions, platform lock-in, and all the other wonderful bits Amazon charges you for! </snark>

On a more serious note, that's a book that's likely to remain on my TBR list forever. It's one of those books that I want to read -- that I feel an educated person should read -- but OMG, the sheer mass of it scares me.

[ATDrake]

Maybe you could do it in increments of 15 minutes per day, like that Harvard Classics series?

[roger the rabbit]

Originally Posted by MartinParish

snip/
. But hey, at the end of the day, for $0.99, I'm not expecting perfection...

And Sooooo! much cheaper than sleeping tablets

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

On a more serious note, that's a book that's likely to remain on my TBR list forever. It's one of those books that I want to read -- that I feel an educated person should read -- but OMG, the sheer mass of it scares me.

Penguin do a very good single volume abridged version of it here.

As you say, it's a book everyone should read, but, on the other hand, many of Gibbons' ideas have been discredited by modern historians. The Penguin abridgement is very well done, and gives a good overview of what the whole thing is about.

[CharlieBird]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Penguin do a very good single volume abridged version of it .

Excited...Disappointed.
Penguin doesn´t have a ebook version. I get an email from them every now and then and think some of their other classics are also available in ebook format.

Oh, well...ditto, Worldwalker.
d

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

<snark> Ah, but with the Gutenberg edition, you don't get DRM restrictions, platform lock-in, and all the other wonderful bits Amazon charges you for! </snark>

Snark noted -- but this one looks to be DRM-free at Amazon (indicated by "Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited").

I already have the PG version of Gibbon's opus in my library, so I'm not going to spend the 99 cents.

[Joykins]

Another d-mn'd thick, square book! Always, scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr. Gibbon?

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Penguin do a very good single volume abridged version of it here.

As you say, it's a book everyone should read, but, on the other hand, many of Gibbons' ideas have been discredited by modern historians. The Penguin abridgement is very well done, and gives a good overview of what the whole thing is about.

You definitely have to take Gibbons with a grain of salt. He let his personal prejudices and bias color his writing. He was particularly harsh on Gallienus, because he blamed him for the persecution of Christians put in place by his father Valerian. Gallienus was not a horrid emperor as put forth by Gibbons, but actually did quite well given the poor timing of his reign. Despite having to deal with plague and near-constant attacks from the barbarians he reigned and held the empire mainly together for 18 years.

-Marcy

[jasonfedelem]

If you dig a little deeper, there are free editions availble thru Amazon. I'm 48% of the way thru book 1.

@ATDrake: I'm going about 15 minutes a day. There's no deadline on this

@HarryT/Marcy: everyone has bias, everyone makes mistakes. Don't implicitly trust everything you read.