Edward Gibbon and the Shape of History

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Edward Gibbon's presentation of character in both the 'History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' and in his posthumously published 'Memoirs' demonstrates a prevailing interest in the values of transcendent heroism and individual liberty, but also an insistent awareness of the dangers these values pose to coherence and narrative order. Roberts explores the 'Decline and Fall' as a work of scholarship and of literature, tracing both its expansive outline and its expressive details.