The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

De: Edward Gibbon

Narrado por: Charlton Griffin

Here in a single volume is the entire, unabridged recording of Gibbon's masterpiece. Beginning in the second century at the apex of the Pax Romana, Gibbon traces the arc of decline and complete destruction through the centuries across Europe and the Mediterranean. It is a thrilling and cautionary tale of splendor and ruin, of faith and hubris, and of civilization and barbarism. Follow along as Christianity overcomes paganism... before itself coming under intense pressure from Islam. It is a story that begins in Rome and ends in the capture of Constantinople by the Turks almost 1,500 years later. To aid in navigating this massive work, please refer to the accompanying PDF, which contains a table of contents and starting times for each chapter.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2015 Audio Connoisseur

Outstanding Reading of a Classic Historical Work

OK, so I'm only about 20 hours, with 106 hours to go, but what a joy so far. Charlton Griffin's performance really brings the text alive. This is much more enjoyable to listen to than you might expect. The fact that Gibbon is unafraid to express his own opinion in just about every sentence he writes is part of what makes this fun. He was a phenomenal writer and Griffin is a phenomenal reader. If this peaks your interest at all, you should definitely give it a try.

Perfect!

Not just a history of Rome but a beautiful piece of art and literature. Perfection!

A classic but dated work, well narrated

An important historical work brought to life by an excellent narration. I have owned the books for years but had trouble committing to read. I definitely missed being able to refer back pages, read the footnotes, etc, but honestly finding the audiobook was the only reason I was finally able to finish this work. The style and diction is definitely a strong indicator that this work is over 200 years old now, and I do find Gibbon’s prose to be eloquent but at times unnecessarily descriptive or wordy.

The narrator has a great voice and while his intonation is a bit unusual at times, I found it engaging to keep my interest when the work was dry. I played the audio at 1.25x which is typical for me and found that was about the right pace to keep me engaged.

My only major complaint was the numerous editing/audio issues of repeated sections, glitches, and one memorable instance when the narrator’s short break from reading was recorded in its entirety, including his words “pause ........ resume”.

Overall definitely not a page turner but I was glad to be able to appreciate this work.

A journey.

It's impossible for me to sum up this behemoth of a historical text in review. All I will say is that this book expanded my mind. I took a journey through the ages, and I am better for it. The best part is that it's actually really humourous.

great history, but easy to get lost

Gibbon's work is clearly a masterpiece, but it can be difficult to follow. He casually refers to detailed points of eurasian geography, goes for long periods of time without reminding you of the year/ century being discussed (even as he sometimes jumps around a little), and characters are generally introduced once and then referred to only by name after that point- so if you ever lose focus you can become more than a little lost. This is a book tempting to listen to sped up due to its massive size, but there is a danger you will just lose all comprehension by doing so (1.75 was my ideal speed, anything faster I was left behind).

The parts I did follow i appreciated- not just because of the intriguing ways that truth is stranger than fiction, but because it also provides insight into the 1776 perspective of the author as well. Gibbon is not shy at all about declaring his prejudices/ who he thinks the villains or just "weak leaders" are- which at least helps it to be more entertaining (Wikipedia claims he's hard on Christianity, but he seems pretty balanced there- he's quite a bit more harsh in his language regarding eunuchs, for example). I enjoyed the parts up to 410 and Alaric's sack of Rome more than the parts after (with the exception of Atila, Justinian, and Muhammed), but that may have been me getting burned out and not Gibbon's writing quality declining.

All in all it's more like hundreds of barely intertwined short stories/ opinion pieces than a grand historical narrative. Definitely a valuable read for anyone interested in European history or late 18th century opinions regarding European history. The narration by Charlton Griffin was excellent, and the couple seconds of music at the end of each chapter was a nice way to break things up/ surprisingly not annoying. Thanks for the great listen-

For the hardest core history fans only

I loved all of it, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that I know. 126 hours of meandering through the Roman decline told by a man from 1787, having all of the prejudices you would expect, was for me a lot of fun but most people who are humans and have ears would likely rip them off half way through the work. But if your reading this review you probably fall into the group of people who enjoy this kind of thing, and in that case I would recommend it just for the satisfaction of beating this book! It's great, just do it.

Fantastic

Gibbon's entire masterpiece in the absolutely perfect voice for the work. Truly quite the deal.

Refreshing historical Perspective

Wonderfully written and narrated. Highly recommendable for understanding classical western values. An eye opener in face of our current thinking in the west where we seem to have forgotten our Greco-Roman tradition that rescued us from the dark ages. May it serve as a stern warning for the compromises that western democracies are doing in face of Islam and immigration. We are clearly loosing our own collective identity against an ill-guided allow-it-all nihilism.
Let's not forget who we are and the sacrifices our forefathers made for us. The responsibility lies on us, the citizens of the west to recover our Hellenic, liberal spirit. That has always made us strong.

Masterfully written, eloquently spoken, but...

It was too short, and I wish it were a little longer than it is.

yuge

possibly the biggest book ever written in the history of forever. absolutely yuge. I read it. people I know read it. everyone agrees that it's positively yuge