Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is the best edition available of Gibbon's history. + It has all of Gibbon's footnotes; + it is packaged in an attractive boxed set; + it's hard bound in good plain cloth, not snobby leather; + it's printed on fine paper; + it can be expected to last into the next century; + it leaves enough white margin for writing notes; + it has an index; + it even smells good. Caveat - It gives no translation of the better Latin and Greek passages; - the black paste used to print the cover's gold-on-black logo flakes off; - don't forget to order the other half (volumes 4, 5, and 6). (The only other edition worth considering is the unabridged paperback Penguin edition. It also contains the full notes, and it is cheaper, but it is bulkier since two volumes are bound as one and the paper is of much lower quality, so the that other edition won't last much more than 10 or 20 years...)