Robert Graves

Denerick

Count Belisarius arrived in the post today. 'Goodbye to All That' is propping up by bookshelf. I read I,Claudius and Claudius the God last week. 'King Jesus' seems like an interesting book.

Anyone else a Robert Graves fanboy?

rubabbel

The only one I've read is King Jesus, and it was many, many years ago, but I remember being interested in the premise, and he's a good writer too. Some of the arguments on who Jesus were are either a bit far-fetched or heavily based on historical criticism that was already old-hat at the time. I don't think this book is much rated, either compared to the rest of his stuff or against literature in general. I think I, Claudius is considered his 'masterpiece'.

chasmcb

I've read quite a few of Graves' books. 'Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth' & 'Proceed Sergeant Lamb' are pretty good about a soldier in the British Army (in Graves' old regiment the Royal Welch Fusiliers) during the American revolution. Then there's his telling of the myth 'The Golden Fleece' that's a good read too, and his translation of 'The Iliad'; 'The Anger of Achilles'.

I never read 'Mrs Milton', about the poet John Milton's wife that could be interesting.

Claddagh Records did an LP of Graves when he visited Ireland in the early 70s'. As well as reading his poems there are various quirky digressions throughout and he also sings a few songs from the WW1 trenches. I don't know if that's still available though.

Denerick

The thing about Graves is that he considered his historical novels to be not very good. They are potboilers, the narrative is rather formulaic. That said I enjoyed the two books on Claudius immensely, but I'm wondering which books he considered amongst his best and which he derided as a means to fill up his bank account.

chasmcb

He set most store by his poetry. You're right that he chiefly saw the novels as a means of earning a crust but I don't think he just cynically churned them out. Also, I suspect he may have partly denigrated the prose works as a way of emphasising the pre-eminence of the poetry. I can't recall reading any remarks of his where he talked about which of the novels or other books he was especially proud of.

chasmcb

Denerick, I can see from your posts that you're an avid reader so I don't know how keen you are on film/tv but have you seen the 1970's BBC adaptation of the Claudius novels? It's excellent; the cast includes Derek Jacobi as Claudius, John Hurt as Caligula, Brian Blessed as Augustus, Sian Phillips as Livia, and a young un-bald Patrick Stewart as Sejanus. I remember watching it avidly when it was first screened. A few years ago I got the series out from the local video rental one Friday thinking I would leisurely watch it over the weekend and ended up watching the whole lot in one marathon sitting.

Denerick

I haven't seen the I,Claudius series, but it does sound excellent. And Patrick Stewart? Am definately getting it now