The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 1

By: Edward Gibbon

Narrated by: Bernard Mayes

Length: 41 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Considered one of the finest historical works in the English language, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is lauded for its graceful, elegant prose style as much as for its epic scope. Remarkably accurate for its day, Gibbon's treatise holds a high place in the history of literature and remains an enduring subject of study.

Gibbon's monumental work traces the history of more than 13 centuries, covering the great events as well as the general historical progression. This first volume covers A.D. 180 to A.D. 395, which includes the establishment of Christianity and the Crusades.

©Public Domain (P)1992 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[Gibbon] stood on the summit of the Renaissance achievement and looked back over the waste of history to ancient Rome, as from one mountain top to another." (Christopher Dawson)

Better on Paper

I really wanted to like this, but some books just don't translate well to audio. This is one of them.

The reader is monotoned and the text has many vague descriptions of culture and etiquette that lack of events and characters to anchor the descriptions against. Your sense of wonder turns into boredom, malaise and then confusion as you try and remember what it was that Gibbon was talking about.

Bad Narrator

The way the narrator whistles his "S" just becomes too unbearable to listen too.

Do not drive or operate heavy machinery

This is going to take some time. -- The recording is old-school, and the narrator is very British and I found his voice soothing and calming. This helped me relax, but I couldn't remember what I was learning. If you want an audio recording of this book, it isn't bad, but I couldn't use it to pass time while driving. It made me sleepy. I'll finish it, but slow and steady in bits and pieces. I wish I hadn't used my credits on this one, but I will finish it and be glad when I am done.

Bad recording of a great book

Let me put it this way: Do you remember boring old history professor, reading the same old sheaf of papers he used to read year after the year, not once lifting his eyes from the text, not noticing every single student is asleep, or drawing something or talking. Well, it looks they sacked him, and now he’s recording books. Only difference is, that in classroom it was “live” performance, and this book sounds like it was recorded in early thirties. I’ve tried listening to this book couple of times, at home, in the car, hoping that horrible crackle would mix with engine and traffic noises, yet without success. So, my advice is: if you really want to read Gibbons “Decline ...”, you would have to READ it. This audio book just isn’t worth trying. Listen to the sample, you don’t have connection or speakers problems, whole book is like that.

TEDIOUS TO LISTEN TO

I love any kind of history but this is very hard to listen to due to the droning, monotonous tone of the narrator. I was just about to purchase Volumes II and III but I can't get through the first few hours of this part! What I did hear is very well researched. It could be a lot more interesting with a narrator like Charlton Griffin ("The Roman", "Genghis Khan", "Alexander of Macedon") who has a superb voice for ancient history.

A Tea Kettle Narrator

The book is great. But I couldn't get through it. The narrator whistles on his S's and it became unbearable. There were times my shoulders popped up to my ears as I tried to follow sentences like "some soldiers in the service of Caesar were sent to Sicily...." OUCH lol. I'll just have to read this one the old fashion way.

How did I ever order this

When I realized Audible had Decline and Fall on file I was thrilled - I have always wanted to read it. However, either Edward Gibbon or the narrator makes this history so tedious to listen to that I simply quit after the first part.

World's most boring reader

I cannot listen to one more minute of this awful monotone. Don't waste a credit on this version. They took a classic and ruined it.