Edward Gibbon had a complex and unhappy personal life. At Oxford he was converted to the Roman church and was consequently sent by his father to Lausanne to be Calvinized. There he fell in love with Suzanne Curchod (later the wife of Necker and the mother of Madame de Stael). His father disapproved and Gibbon reports the outcome in the now famous words "I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son". From this point on he devoted himself to his reading and writing, as well as having a military and parliamentary career in England before returning to Lausanne to finish "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". He finished his days under the roof of his friend the Earl of Sheffield, who first edited these memoirs for publication.
- ISBN10 0140439846
- ISBN13 9780140439847
- Publish Date 10 December 2001 (first published 29 March 1984)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 8 February 2005
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 240
- Language English