3 - Introduction

Summary

Those whom the appearance of virtue, or the evidence of genius, have tempted to a nearer knowledge of the writer in whose performances they may be found, have indeed had frequent reason to repent their curiosity; the bubble that sparkled before them has become common water at the touch; the phantom of perfection has vanished when they wished to press it to their bosom.

Johnson

In its original quarto form, The Decline and Fall bulks to approximately one and a half cubic feet. The Hanoverians are not renowned for their literary acuity, but no one could deny the accuracy of the Duke of Gloucester's assessment of at least the look of the volumes with which Gibbon presented him in 1781: ‘Another damned thick square book!’ However, despite its monumental appearance, the production of The Decline and Fall was beset by vicissitudes. From the first its publication was subject to postponement. Gibbon treats this as a fact of authorial life: ‘In every great work unforeseen labours and difficulties and delays will arise.’ But his deferrals are unusually plentiful and repeated. In 1774, he makes plain his hopes to publish Volume I in 1775. In June 1775, he talks of ‘next winter’. The first volume of The Decline and Fall was eventually published on 17 February 1776. The second instalment of Volumes II and III was published on 1 March 1781: but in the correspondence that precedes it we are again faced with multiple postponements.