Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Autobiography (World's Classics 139)” as Want to Read:

Autobiography

by
Edward Gibbon

Other editions

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Autobiography (World's Classics 139)

by Edward Gibbon

4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 · rating details · 59 ratings · 11 reviews

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into pri ...more

Hardcover , 372 pages

Published December 28th 1980 by Oxford University Press (first published 1796)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

Or buy for

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Autobiography , please sign up .

Be the first to ask a question about Autobiography

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 205)

filter | sort : default (?) | rating details

Jan 31, 2014 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 18thcentury , lit-hum-trivium , men-of-letters

Re-reading this has primed me for some more Austen. For six months Persuasion has been a brick in my bedside to-read tower, and at no point of that time have I found myself in the mood to read the novel. I’m in the mood now. In the lofty ironic style with which he traced the dissipation of Roman dynasties and the dispersion of Roman power, Gibbon recounts the household anxieties – and squalors and disasters – of three generations of precarious English gentry. There’s a general background of merc ...more

flag 22 likes · Like · see review

Oct 21, 2014 Lotz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: prose-style

By this point, I am much too enamored of Mr. Gibbon to be an impartial judge. I read his work with an almost religious awe. Indeed, Gibbon’s temper is almost that of a sage: not in his kindness or goodness, but in his calm curiosity.

It is a truism of psychology that negative experiences make more lasting impressions than positive ones; a man can remember perfectly the last fight with his wife, but not their last shared laugh. Thus, much daily cheerfulness is merely the result of a willful ignora By this point, I am much too enamored of Mr. Gibbon to be an impartial judge. I read his work with an almost religious awe. Indeed, Gibbon’s temper is almost that of a sage: not in his kindness or goodness, but in his calm curiosity.

It is a truism of psychology that negative experiences make more lasting impressions than positive ones; a man can remember perfectly the last fight with his wife, but not their last shared laugh. Thus, much daily cheerfulness is merely the result of a willful ignorance of the foul things in life.

Gibbon is, if not unique, then at least in a rare class of individuals who naturally savor the good things in life, and do not dwell on the bad. This magnificent ability allowed him to survey the wastes of human history—with all of its slaughters, persecutions, and injustices—without becoming dreary or pessimistic. This is not to say that he does not give the horrors of history their proper weight; perhaps even the opposite is true: he spends many hours slowly unraveling the threads of barbarity that are interwoven with the decline of the Roman Empire. This is to say that, through this ignominious tapestry, Gibbon can always see a golden thread, not far off, glinting prettily.

Perhaps one could summarize Gibbon’s life as the triumph of curiosity over adversity. Gibbon is insatiable; this book, his memoirs, quite often takes the form of a list of books that he read. Gibbon desired to know, and this desire spurred him to greater and greater heights of erudition. And because Gibbon was so fascinated by human life, in all of its shades and colors, he can find something to interest him in any situation: whether it be the personality quirk of a queen, or a technicality in an ancient legal code. Gibbon is perhaps the greatest testament to the value of cultivating curiosity; for, once the love of learning is instilled, the dull world of cruelty and corruption becomes a garden of delight.

I cannot help but think that Gibbon’s ability to find interest in any human endeavor is connected with his ability to describe any human endeavor interestingly. As I’ve often remarked, Gibbon is an incomparable writer; and it seems, from his cheerful, calm temper, that the way he wrote mirrored the way he thought. (One of the more charming things we learn about Mr. Gibbon from these memoirs is that he composed every paragraph in his head before writing it down.) To see the world through Gibbon’s eyes is to see the world through Gibbon’s prose; and through that lens, every square inch of earth is full of beauty.
...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Eric Excellent review! This

for, once the love of learning is instilled, the dull world of cruelty and corruption becomes a garden of delight.

reminded of a ...more
Oct 20, 2014 11:37PM

Lotz Eric wrote: "Excellent review! This

for, once the love of learning is instilled, the dull world of cruelty and corruption becomes a garden of delight.

r ...more
Oct 21, 2014 06:15AM

Nov 07, 2013 Justin Evans rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history-etc , essays

What's not to love about a man who writes this well, even when he's not really trying, and gets more upset about intellectual arguments than he does about a faltering love life? Nothing not to love. Gibbon's life wasn't particularly eventful, but this prose would drag me through even a contemporary, 'trauma' filled memoir. Along the way he takes moderate shots at the university system, olde time religione, and the French. A very pleasant way to spend a few hours, in short. Particularly worth rea ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 06, 2010 Nicholas Whyte rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Edward Gibbon's short and entertaining autobiography, telling the story of his life and of how he wrote the Decline and Fall. The two chapters in which Gibbon describes the completion, publication and reception of the Decline and Fall ought to be essential reading for anyone planning a writing career. In particular, his reflections on completing the twenty-year project are poignant:

'It was on the night of the 27th of June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last line o Edward Gibbon's short and entertaining autobiography, telling the story of his life and of how he wrote the Decline and Fall. The two chapters in which Gibbon describes the completion, publication and reception of the Decline and Fall ought to be essential reading for anyone planning a writing career. In particular, his reflections on completing the twenty-year project are poignant:

'It was on the night of the 27th of June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last line of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias . I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.'

There is lots more here as well: his political career (which was entirely the result of Gibbon's receipt of patronage - two different seats in parliament for pocket boroughs, and a junior government position which appears to have involved no actual duties in return for a large salary), his experience of Oxford (and some of his trenchant criticisms of the Oxbridge system remain valid), his reflections on living in Lausanne rather than London, his experience as an officer in the militia. Gibbon comes across as, of course, tremendously intelligent, but also rather modest with it: he is conscious of some of the flaws of Decline and Fall, but claims that his own satisfaction at a job well done is more important than public praise or condemnation, though at the same time praise is always welcome. He expresses the vague hope, in 1791, that people will still read his work in a hundred years' time. I was reading this aloud to Anne as she drove us home from England yesterday, and I found I had got something in my eye, also affecting my throat, as I got to the end:

'The present is a fleeting moment, the past is no more; and our prospect of futurity is dark and doubtful. This day may possibly be my last: but the laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular, still allow about fifteen years.... The warm desires, the long expectations of youth, are founded on the ignorance of themselves and of the world: they are gradually damped by time and experience, by disappointment and possession; and after the middle season the crowd must be content to remain at the foot of the mountain; while the few who have climbed the summit aspire to descend or expect to fall. In old age, the consolation of hope is reserved for the tenderness of parents, who commence a new life in their children; the faith of enthusiasts, who sing Hallelujahs above the clouds; and the vanity of authors, who presume the immortality of their name and writing.'

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. Well worth getting. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 11, 2014 John-Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The last third or so of this book was just wonderful. The first two thirds are taken up with family history and correcting the record about Gibbon's dalliance with Roman Catholicism. I found myself reading a few pages and then finding other things to do. But then he gets to his Roman history, backbenching in Parliament, and retirement to Lausanne, and the prose (which had been a delight throughout) finally had a reason for being.

This is not a book of great wisdom or even deep insight (into ones ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 17, 2014 Richard Epstein rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Most famous line? Ordered by his father to abandon his One True Love, Gibbon says, "I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son." The World's Greatest Historian was not altogether like you and me. Of course that may help explain why we are not the World's Greatest Historians.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 31, 2014 Dayla rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-or-autobriography

As Gibbon related, "a sincere and simple narrative of my own life may amuse some of my leisure hours, but it will subject me, and perhaps with justice, to the imputation of vanity." But far from vanity, Gibbon, engages his readers in what only can be described as a hand to mouth life until after his "History of the Decline..." which won him both fame and fortune. It becomes clear what the world would be like if FDR had not provided Social Security, and how Gibbon was not able to beget children d ...more

flag Like · see review

May 04, 2014 Larry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a fine autobiography, and probably of some interest if you're reading Decline and Fall, since it sheds some interesting light on Gibbon's intellectual development and unique life story and how he came to write his masterpiece.

flag Like · see review

Jun 03, 2013 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Remarkable person who was almost entirely self educated. Great insights into how to educate yourself in the Roman and Greek classics and how intellectuals in the neoclassical era interacted and developed.

flag Like · see review

Dec 11, 2011 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read this in college in a seminar on the history of how history has been studied and historiography. Of all the classes I took in college, this was one of the best. I still have a copy.

flag Like · see review

Jul 19, 2010 John Patrick added it · review of another edition

This guy is a genius for sure. Really enjoyed reading this.

flag Like · see review

Jaime marked it as to-read
Sep 15, 2015

Brandon Bordelon marked it as to-read
Sep 09, 2015

Ian Martin marked it as to-read
Aug 31, 2015

Simona marked it as to-read
Aug 31, 2015

Hend marked it as to-read
Aug 29, 2015

Billy rated it 5 of 5 stars
Aug 08, 2015

David marked it as to-read
Jul 07, 2015

Sherri Thompson marked it as to-read
Jun 29, 2015

Courtney marked it as to-read
Jun 17, 2015

Kally Sheng marked it as to-read
Jun 29, 2015

Tashfiya Zaman marked it as to-read
Jun 04, 2015

Gary rated it 5 of 5 stars
Jun 04, 2015

Kenneth Burns added it
May 25, 2015

Eric Hexem marked it as to-read
May 05, 2015

Lucian McMahon rated it 3 of 5 stars
Apr 28, 2015

Akhet rated it 3 of 5 stars
Apr 25, 2015

Jonathan Freed marked it as to-read
Apr 19, 2015

Lawrence added it
Mar 28, 2015

Stephen Perkovic marked it as to-read
Mar 26, 2015

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

Readers Also Enjoyed

Genres

Biography

10 users

History

7 users

Biography > Autobiography

3 users

Non Fiction

3 users

See top shelves...

About Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon (8 May 1737 – 16 January 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. The Decline and Fall is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its open criticism of organised religion.

Gibbon returned to England Edward Gibbon (8 May 1737 – 16 January 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. The Decline and Fall is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its open criticism of organised religion.

Gibbon returned to England in June 1765. His father died in 1770, and after tending to the estate, which was by no means in good condition, there remained quite enough for Gibbon to settle fashionably in London at 7 Bentinck Street, independent of financial concerns. By February 1773, he was writing in earnest, but not without the occasional self-imposed distraction. He took to London society quite easily, joined the better social clubs, including Dr. Johnson's Literary Club, and looked in from time to time on his friend Holroyd in Sussex. He succeeded Oliver Goldsmith at the Royal Academy as 'professor in ancient history' (honorary but prestigious). In late 1774, he was initiated a freemason of the Premier Grand Lodge of England. And, perhaps least productively in that same year, he was returned to the House of Commons for Liskeard, Cornwall through the intervention of his relative and patron, Edward Eliot. He became the archetypal back-bencher, benignly "mute" and "indifferent," his support of the Whig ministry invariably automatic. Gibbon's indolence in that position, perhaps fully intentional, subtracted little from the progress of his writing.

After several rewrites, with Gibbon "often tempted to throw away the labours of seven years," the first volume of what would become his life's major achievement, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published on 17 February 1776. Through 1777, the reading public eagerly consumed three editions for which Gibbon was rewarded handsomely: two-thirds of the profits amounting to approximately £1,000. Biographer Leslie Stephen wrote that thereafter, "His fame was as rapid as it has been lasting." And as regards this first volume, "Some warm praise from David Hume overpaid the labour of ten years."

Volumes II and III appeared on 1 March 1781, eventually rising "to a level with the previous volume in general esteem." Volume IV was finished in June 1784; the final two were completed during a second Lausanne sojourn (September 1783 to August 1787) where Gibbon reunited with his friend Deyverdun in leisurely comfort. By early 1787, he was "straining for the goal" and with great relief the project was finished in June. Gibbon later wrote:

It was on the day, or rather the night, of 27 June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. ... I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken my everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that, whatsoever might be the future date of my history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.

Volumes IV, V, and VI finally reached the press in May 1788, their publication having been delayed since March so it could coincide with a dinner party celebrating Gibbon's 51st birthday (the 8th). Mounting a bandwagon of praise for the later volumes were such contemporary luminaries as Adam Smith, William Robertson, Adam Ferguson, Lord Camden, and Horace Walpole. Smith remarked that Gibbon's triumph had positioned him "at the very head of [Europe's] literary tribe." ...more

More about Edward Gibbon...

Books by Edward Gibbon

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume I

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume III

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1-3: Volumes 1, 2, 3

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume II

More…

Share This Book

Share on your website

title link	preview: Autobiography
avg rating	preview: Autobiography Goodreads rating: 4.05 (59 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/509078.Autobiography?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/111x148-bcc042a9c91a29c1d680899eff700a03.png[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/509078.Autobiography?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Autobiography by Edward Gibbon[/url]

+ Share on your website

Trivia About Memoirs of My Life

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Memoirs of My Life

“To a lover of books the shops and sales in London present irresistible temptations.” — 13 likes

“... but I must reluctantly observe that two causes, the abbreviation of time, and the failure of hope, will always tinge with a browner shade the evening of life.” — 4 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — Autobiography by Edward Gibbon

Autobiography (World's Classics 139)

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers Also Enjoyed

Genres

About Edward Gibbon

Books by Edward Gibbon

Share This Book

Share on your website

Trivia About Memoirs of My Life

Quotes from Memoirs of My Life