Download or read book Gibbon and the 'Watchmen of the Holy City' written by David Womersley and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject of this book is the story of the conflict between Gibbon and those he mockingly dubbed the "Watchmen of the Holy City," and it explores the ramifications of an elusive aspect of authorship. By considering the sequence of interactions between the historian and his readership, Womersley makes possible a more intimate understanding of what might be called Gibbon's experience of himself. At the same time he deepens our knowledge of the conditions of English authorship during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.