Edward Gibbon · Civilisations

The Magisterial Irony

Gibbon’s incomparable style - the elegant, ironic, magisterial prose that made history a supreme literary art and embodied the cool skepticism of the Enlightenment.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Gibbon’s style combined elegant, ironic, magisterial prose with Enlightenment skepticism. Explain what made his writing a supreme literary art and what his irony achieved, in your own words.

Leads to Voltaire.

epoché — a humanities education that remembers you.