Product Description

Robert Graves' superb autobiography tells the story of his life at public school and as a young officer during the First World War. 'It is a permanently valuable work of literary art, and indispensable for the historian either of the First World War or of modern English poetry ... Apart, however, from its expetional value as a war document, this book has also the interest of being one of the most candid self-portraits of a poet, warts and all, ever painted. Thesketches of friends lof Mr Graves, like T.E. Lawrence, are beautifully vivid' Times Literary Supplement

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83754 in Books
• Published on: 1999-02-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Born in 1895, Robert Graves went straight from school to the First World War, where he became a captain. A poet at heart, he also wrote several historical novels which include I, Claudius and Claudius the God - GOODBYE TO ALL THAT was written in 1929 and rapidly established itself as a modern classic. He translated Apuleius, Lucan and Suetonius for the Penguin Classics, and complied The Greek Myths. He was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1961. He died at his home in Majorca in 1929.

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly unputdownable.
When I decided to read this book, I did so with trepidation. Previously, I had read All Quiet on The Western Front and Farewell to Arms and, even though I wanted to learn more about The First World War, I was worried about the diary format of Goodbye to All That.

I was, of course, more than pleasantly surprised. Robert Graves is lucid and engaging through-out. Even in the beginning, when he recalls his education at Harrow, I found it fascinating and was hooked. Robert Graves has a wonderful way of writing, whereby it's as if he's only having a casual conversation. In fact, all the way through, Graves employs this friendly method of communication, even when he's discussing his time in the trenches. Naturally, there are more than a few harrowing occasions when the author conveys his dispair, especially towards the end, where Graves becomes increasingly disillusioned with the war, but, even so, the engaging dialogue abides.

The book is highly interesting for several reasons. Firstly, and most prominently, there is much insight into the then-life of an officer, such as the antiquated hierarchy system, and trench war-fare, the old gas masks, the fun the officers had behind the lines, and the military tribunal system. And there is much more on that besides. There is also much about Robert Graves' family and his upbringing.

I enjoyed the book particularly for it descriptions of Siegfried Sassoon and his and Graves' friendship. Having such an intimate description of so emminent a poet is invaluable, and adds real depth to any of Sassoon's work you might read afterward.

Goodbye to All That is a great book. It is well crafted, and intriguing, and, more than anything, it is an important work of military literature.

shocking
I read this book directly after reading All Quiet On The Western Front and found it a very intersting comparison. In many ways I found that Graves' detatched detailing of the horror was the most distressing. It's amazing how different two perspectives can be on essentially the same experience. The story described in this autobiography is a quite shocking but incredible one. You will especially enjoy it if you hold a specific interest either WW1, the early 20th century literary scene or, even better, both.

Classic
Having read Blunden to Sassoon, Frank Richards to Remarque, it is this book which I constantly come back to. I can't quite single out why- whether its his descriptions of pre WW1 England, or the horrors of the war itself, or what happened in the immediate aftermath... its just so well pieced together. Unpretentious, graphic, gripping-
I visited the battlefield in France and Belgioum a couple of years ago and even though fully aware of the range of books and guides available- I consciously only took this one- and so we took in Graves' 'Brickstacks', and Cuinchy , and Givenchy etc- everything came to life.

It really is such a remarkable book I can't praise it enough, and anyone who wants to get a grip on this most important of times really needs to take the time out to read Goodbye to All That.