My husband has expressed interest in Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empre. I’d like to surprise him with it for Valentines Day, but am confused about what to look for. We got a flyer from some bookseller offering a leatherbound 3 volume edition of it for somewhere between $100 and $200-can’t remember exactly. He wanted that one. On the low end, it’s on Ebay for $7.99, but it’s a 1970’s abridged edition. We have a baby, so his only reading time is in the bathroom, but I don’t want to get him something cheesy.
How necessary is the full edition? Is it something that can be found in a dusty specialty bookstore somewhere for under $200, or should I not even try?
Thanks!
Amazon lists a three-volume hardcover, boxed set for $32.20. My suggestion would be to get that one; if he likes it, then get the el monstro leather-bound version.
However, he may be sending you a signal here. It’s possible that he wants reassurance that he’s special to you; special enough to warrant a Really Nice Gift. YMMV.
The two copies I would find most attractive as a gift are numbers 12 and 81 in the search. I know both of the booksellers by reputation and you should get a very nice copy. I would go to Amazon if you decide to get a reading copy, a handsome collectible copy would be best found on ABE. Good Luck!
Thank you very kindly, both of you! Rocketeer-You’re quite right-he is very special and well worth a nice gift, but as we’re living off one and a half incomes right now it’s a matter of choosing just the right expensive gift!
Fruitbat You’ve been a great help-I’m off to look at your links straightaway!
Though speaking as someone who’s only finished an abridgement of The Decline and Fall, I’d say that for a gift you should go for a full set. Gibbon is a great writer and not one to be given just a selection from.
It should be pointed out that the 3-volume set Rocketeer links to is only the first half of the 6-volume Everyman’s Library set, though you can also buy a boxed set of the matching volumes 4-6. This split is possible because, while Gibbon continues the story through to 1453 and the fall of Constantinople, most people only associate him with writing about the fall of Rome. That roughly occupies only the first half of the work. Abridged versions similarily tend to cut the latter half entirely and then just shorten the first half.
The Everyman’s Library has a good reputation for producing handsome books and a set of their 6 volumes of Gibbon would be a nice present, without having to worry about the condition/price of secondhand editions.
Penguin Classics produce a more recent complete text in 3 paperback volumes, often available as a boxed set. This is cheaper all round and the quality of the volumes as objects reflects this, but it does have the advantage of a much superior set of notes and scholarly apparatus.
If (as it appears) you want a good-looking light-reading set, then go for the Everyman. Otherwise I’d personally plump for the Penguin. In fact, it was the latter I once bought as a present - but that was for someone who’s a professional historian, so it was a bit of a special case.
Not professionally.
He’s more of a history nut. I mean a SERIOUS history nut.
He was just eyeballing the Folio Society’s leatherbound edition, saying that he’d always wanted to read it.
He does have some nice books, but certainly nothing leatherbound that sits out on our bookshelves (what with 11 month old Dr. Destructo around and all).
He’s an appreciator of fine books adrift alone in our household. I couldn’t give a flip; as much as I love to read I also bend the spines, make pencil notes in margins, fold pages, etc. I use them as tools and not as art.
My behavior horrifies him.
Thus, I am tempted to go with the leatherbound edition but also know that he’ll have to keep it at the office or something!
Yeah, I know. Not the most romantic book. However, guys notoriously have everything, so when he mentions something even in passing, I try to put in in my mental rolodex for future gift-giving reference.
