Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful story of the early life of a poet
When one reads or views Graves' poetry or his wonderful novel I, CLAUDIUS, one can only wonder whence came such talent.This book is the answer, detailing his fascinating family background and upbringing, as well as his impressive struggles with schooling, with family and in the trenches of France in the First World War.Nor did his married life and early career become any easier, the life of a young poet paying as well as you might imagine, particularly a poet with four young children.Still, Graves is truly inspirational in the way he always followed his own path and refused to waver, despite considerable pressures.Tempered by these experiences and never forgetting to work hard, he prepared for the astounded beginnings of success described in the next book in the series, The Years With Laura Riding.That this latter book is not on Amazon is a horrible omission. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1929 Robert Graves went to live abroad permanently, vowing 'never to make England my home again'. This is his superb account of his life up until that 'bitter leave-taking': from his childhood and desperately unhappy school days at Charterhouse, to his time serving as a young officer in the First World War that was to haunt him throughout his life. It also contains memorable encounters with fellow writers and poets, including Siegfried Sassoon and Thomas Hardy, and covers his increasingly unhappy marriage to Nancy Nicholson. "Goodbye to All That", with its vivid, harrowing descriptions of the Western Front, is a classic war document, and also has immense value as one of the most candid self-portraits of an artist ever written. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

autobiography from the trenchs
Possibley one of the best known autobiographies to be written from the trenchs of the First World war Robert Graves in later years would be a professional writer and in his autobiography he brings all his considerable skill to bear.

Born into privilage in Victorian England he was among the rush of young men who scrambled to enlist when war broke out in 1914. As a young gentleman of a proper education he is accepted as an officer in the 2nd Royal Welch Fusiliers a unit that produced some of the most proliffic writers of the entire war.

Graves coveres the prejudices of his age. Not just the us vs them of the war, but between classes in England, between officers and enlisted with in his own army, between different regiments in the army and between regulars and volunteers within his own officers' mess. For example when he is first commissioned, his commander is reluctant to send him overseas. He feels Graves is not sporting enough, because Graves did not ask for time off to go hunting.

As the book unveils, the glossy patina of 'joining the grand adventure' wears away in the horrors of the trench and frustrations with senior officers, and Graves takes the reader along with him. You start out shiny and hopeful and end feeling as if you too are caked with grime, not just mud but the blood spilled to no good end. ... Read more

Product Description
Recounts the glorious days when gods and godesses who dwelt on Mount Olympus ruled over the world of mortals below, and fabled heroes performed mighty deeds of valor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Seller listed this book on "GOOD" condition
Wrong. The cover of the book is badly stained, the pages have all turned brown with age. At best this book should have been listed as "acceptable" with a description of the stains,etc. Seller was misleading. Will not purchase from seller in the future.

Excellent basic introduction to Greek mythology
We hear such words and names as Zeus, Ariel, Titans, and Hermes quite frequently. But where do all these names and words come from? What is the history behind them? These and many other familiar questions will be answered in Greek Gods and Heroes (Laurel-leaf books) pocket book. The text is very easy to read and understand as the author Robert Graves has written the book in extremely prosaic way. Short stories are fascinating and interesting and the narrative plot is like a vivid adventure. This paperback is excellent basic introduction to Greek mythology and very enjoyable to read.

Nice Easily Accessible Narrative Versions Of the Major Myths
If you're seeking a scholarly examination of the origins of Greek Mythology, this isn't your book. Robert Graves left us short narrative style -easy to read selections that cover many of the Greek myths in a style that is easy enough to be read by a child yet still provides a nice refresher or introduction to the general reader. These are great tales, in some cases familiar and yet by reading through them you will learn things about the origins of certain words and expressions that are still culturally relevant. A very nice little book to breeze through but don't expect too much detail.

Disappointing
This was a strangely disappointing purchase. Given Robert Graves's reputation and his poetic background, I would have expected something that was concise but lyrical and engaging. Instead, while this book does seem precise and organized, it comes across more as vehicle for efficient information transfer than a collection of some of the world's greatest stories told by one of the world's great storytellers. The tone is dry, even mundane, and sucks much of the drama and power out of the myths - eg, this happened, then this, then this, then he/she died, the end. Oddly short on the sort of language and narrative arc that generally make myths exciting and memorable.

Good intro and excellent for overviews.
I gave a lower rating as I need more background information. The book does exactly what it says: give you an overview and an introduction to Greek mythology. It's a very raw form of introducing the novelty reader to the material and meets that need well. I agree with a previous commenter who stated it's great for kids and teens.

Regardless, this should be in your shelf as a reference. ... Read more

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 exceptional 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. The sketches of friends of Mr Graves, like T.E. Lawrence, are beautifully vivid' - "Times Literary Supplement". ... Read more

Product Description
A biography of the poet Robert Graves. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Once again the Amazon reviews are not for same item
The "reviews" that Amazon has posted have no relevance to this CD. Alas, I've not yet heard it, but here is the publisher's description:

Over a long career Robert Graves proved a prolific writer across a variety of genres - producing historical novels, classical translations and criticism - but he regarded himself as primarily a poet.

Drawing on previously unpublished BBC broadcasts that span more than 30 years, this CD presents a selection of recordings of Graves reading and commenting on his poems, including The White Goddess and To Juan at the Winter Solstice.

Also featured is a 1954 broadcast titled The Poet and his Public in which Graves gives an insight into his feelings about his audience and the difference in his approach to writing poetry and novels ... Read more

Product Description
The third volume of the definitive biography of Robert Graves, novelist, critic,biographer, scholar and one of the finest poets of this century. Spanning the last forty-five years of Robert Graves's life, this enthralling volume may be read alone, or as a sequel to the author's two volumes ROBERT GRAVES: THE ASSAULT HEROIC 1895-1926 AND ROBERT GRAVES: THE YEARS WITH LAURA RIDING 1926-1940.Amazon.com Review
If this long, concluding volume to Richard Perceval Graves'three-volume biography of the poet, novelist, and mythologist Robert Graveslacks the savor and drama of the second volume, it is only because therelatively sedate life of an aged, lionized poet can be relativelytame reading. Robert Graves, the author's uncle, had by the beginningof World War II, at age 45, settled into life with Beryl Hodge, hissecond wife. After the war, they took up residence in Majorca, wherehe was visited by an unending succession of disciples and young womenwhom Graves adopted as lovers and muses. It was on Majorca that Gravesproduced The WhiteGoddess, his reworking of Celtic and pre-Greek mythology,surely one of the strangest Great Books ever written, and it is thetale of the poet's growing obsession with the triple-moon goddess,dubbed Cerridwen, that takes up much of this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

fascinating look into the creative life
The third book on the life of poet and novelist Robert Graves is the story of his achievement of great public success, and then what?So many poets have achieved greatness only to spend the rest of their lives in a hapless chase to regain it.Graves' unique pursuit of his path should be a salutory example to all that it need not be so.Along the way we also find out about his new muses and other new relationships both with his growing family as well as with the world.Particularly interesting are his lectures and synopses of his remarks on other poets including Lawrence, Hopkins, Yeats, Pound, Eliot, Auden, Thomas and Byron, most of whom earned his displeasure to a greater or lesser degree.There are also amusing vignettes such as Graves'introducing J.R.R. Tolkien to Ava Gardner when neither one had ever heard of the other.Although Graves' last decade is almost too sad and his pursuit of younger women sometimes a bit pathetic, overall it is always a moving, intriguing and enjoyable story.The second volume of this work does not seem to be on Amazon, which I find a horrible omission. ... Read more

Product Description
When it comes to golf course design, Robert Muir Graves and Geoffrey S. Cornish are true masters. Over the past few decades, they have produced every type of course imaginable: long and short, entry level and upscale, courses built on ocean bluffs and swamps, courses located in the United States and around the world. Now, drawing on this vast experience and their popular golf course design seminars held at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and nationwide for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, Graves and Cornish share a wealth of expertise on all aspects of design and construction in this outstanding book.

Golf Course Design covers all of the major historic, aesthetic, business, and technical issues of the subject-- from course layout, hole design, drainage, irrigation, and turf-grass selection to planning, financing, construction, and environmental considerations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Completely Satisfied
Product was same as advertised. Delivered in a timely fashion.I'm a satisfied customer.

Golf Course Design Textbook
A must for students of golf course architecture. A remarkable book.

Geoff Shackelford ... Read more

Product Description
A classic social history by two distinguished writers who lived through the time. "The long week-end" is the authors' evocative phrase for the period in Great Britain's social history between the twin devastations of the Great War and World War II. From a postwar period of prosperity and frivolity through the ever-darkening decade of the thirties, The Long Week-End deftly and movingly preserves the details and captures the spirit of the time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Detailed, informed, sometimes catty!
This is a very detailed social history of Britain between the world wars. It's sometimes a slog but is leavened by lots of amusing anecdotes about fads and celebrities, and the authors (more Graves, I suspect) occasionally make catty comments about fellow writers of the period, a rich one in Brit lit. It was originally published in 1940 which, on the one hand, gives it a dated feel because the authors lack the decades of hindsight about events, particularly the outcome of WWII, that we enjoy today. Yet, the fact that it was a contemporary account also lends an immediacy to the writing. History buffs and Anglophiles should enjoy it.

A Must-Read for the inter-war period!
The inter-war years in the UK saw some startling changes, and this book offers an essentially contemporaneous view on them.While it was written shortly after the start of World War II, the authors clearly had first hand experiences with many aspects of daily life from 1918-1939.The book is well organized and thoughtfully written, and offers both historical data about the inter-war years and also insight in to the general attitude of those years in the way the authors discuss their reactions to the various developments.Well worth a read for both the historian and the casual reader.

England between the wars.
_The Long Weekend_ is (as the title says) a social history of Great Britain between the two wars. It was originally published in 1941 and was co-authored (as is often forgotten) by Alan Hodge.

The book isn't written using a strictly structured or academic style (at least not one clear to this reader) but moves smoothly and in a conversational way between subjects and ideas. It takes that conversation from Armistice in 1918 to the declaration of war against Germany in 1939. The chapters cover subjects as diverse as Revolutionary ideas, Amusements, Domestic life, trends in art and literature, political life, and the Loch Ness monster.

One of the nicer things about this book is the vividness of the detail which Graves and Hodge bring to their subjects. When they write about the night clubs of the 1920s, they bring them to life almost better than the novelists who wrote about the same period. The book is a treasure trove for trivia buffs, armchair historians, or people looking for background color from the period.

That said, it's a long book for such a specific period of British history. While I really enjoyed the read I didn't need so much specific information and there were times when I found myself struggling to keep interest. That's not a reflection on the quality of the book, however, more the needs that I brought to it and shouldn't discourage the potential reader.

Revisit Britain's "Long week-End"
"The Long Week-End" by novelist Robert Graves (author of the equally recommended memoir of WWI, "Goodbye to All That") and journalist Alan Hodge (with uncreditted research assistance by Karl Goldschmidt) is a kaleidoscopic survey of British life between the wars.First published in 1940, this highly readable, impressionistic history of the interwar years is based primarily on newspaper accounts and personal memoirs from the time. Arranged in chapters covering a range of topics making up modern life, from "Reading Matter" to "Sex", from "Post-War Politics" to "The Depression," Graves and Hodge capture the spirit of a time frozen between the two great disasters of the twentieth century.

As a social history, "The Long Week-End" dwells more on matters of manners and daily living; matters of more interest than of "historic" note, such as the rise and fall of Eurythmics, Golfinia McIntoshii, the Lookatmeter, Mr. Grindell-Matthews' death ray, and Colonel Barker the transvestite English fascist.If you want to learn about the significance of the Rapallo Agreement or the Stresa Conference you should probably look elsewhere.Here you can read about M'Intosh and Parer's almost forgotten flight from England to Australia in a broken-down WWI bomber bought for a few pounds.Or of Horatio Bottomley, who grew rich through successful, but crooked, lottery schemes and then lost it all.You'll learn more about the Archdeacon Wakeford case than the Four-Power Pact.

Reading the book brought up parallels to modern times, showing that the more things change the more they stay the same.Moralists attacked the immorality of the times, popular music, books and movies were blamed for the lowering of the standards of decency and culture, the older generation decried the lax mores of the young, the high brows decried the intrusion of American low-brow culture, etc.

"The Long Week-End" is written in a mock serious tone of an anthropologist describing the strange customs of some lost Amazonian tribe."The Twenties did indeed,: the authors quip, "temporarily raise the mental age of the average theatre-goer from fourteen to seventeen." "...the early film-star," they observe, "usually grimaced at his audience like someone trying to convey news of terrific importance to a stone-deaf and half-witted child."

Graves, who originally thought "lull" (as in "lull between the wars") should be in the title, had entered into writing the book, in part, to provide some financial assistance to his friend Alan Hodge.Graves collaborated with Hodge in the same year on "The Reader Over Your Shoulder," a manual of style.The book benefits from a judicious use of quotes from newspapers. The "Authors' Note" lists a number of topics skipped over, leaving me wanting to know more about the Mannin Beg steeplechase for racing cars.The book reminds me of Otto Friedrich's book on Berlin in the 1920s, "Before the Deluge," which readers might want to also search out. ... Read more

Product Description
In all of literature, there are few books with the vitality of The Golden Ass. The story follows Lucius, a young man of good birth, as he disports himself in the cities and along the roads of Thessaly. This is a wonderful tale abounding in lusty incident, curious adventure and bawdy wit.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Horrible Edition
Amazon really screwed up when they lumped all editions/translations of this story together.My rating is for the General Books LLC edition which is absolutely unreadable.It mixes English and Latin and reminds me of computer generated spam.It is totally incoherent.I will never buy another book by this publisher, but I may buy another edition of The Golden Ass someday.

Highly entertaining and...profound?
The only other Roman novel I had read before picking up The Golden Ass was Petronius's novel The Satyricon which I found to be rather dull and slow going. No doubt that is largely due to the fact that we no longer possess The Satyricon in it's entirety, and it is difficult to get any sense of narrative continuity from the fragments we do possess. When I decided to read Apuleius's The Golden Ass, however, I was prepared for another slow, dull read. But I was pleasantly surprised.

This book has a number of qualities which recommend it when considered purely from a literary standpoint. First, the story itself is highly entertaining and is composed of a series of vignettes as the main character, Lucius, after being transformed into an ass, makes his way from one inevitably cruel master to another, and manages to narrowly escape death on a number of occasions. Secondly, Apuleius's tale gives us a glimpse into the wide variety of characters who were resident within the Roman empire at the time Apuleius was writing, as well as their manner of life, which is fascinating. And the last thing that recommends this novel purely as literature is it's humor which nearly every reviewer has drawn attention to.

But this book is more than "just literature" in the usual sense of that word. Ultimately this is a book about religious conversion and I was surprised to find myself as I read comparing it to Augustine's Confessions. I was also surprised by the profundity of the theology expressed in certain passages of the story. For example, at one point in the story Lucius has fallen in with a group of eunuchs who have devoted themselves to the worship of some nameless goddess. In devotion to her the eunuchs engage in all sorts of self-flagellation and work themselves up into a self-induced frenzy which they apparently consider a sign of divine immanence. As Lucius is watching all of this he thinks, "A strange notion, this, that divine immanency, instead of doing men good, enfeebles or disorders their senses" (pg. 190). This struck me as a fairly profound theological statement. It also struck me as very Platonic, and I was happy to have my suspicions about a possible Platonic influence on Apuleius's theology confirmed in Robert Graves's introduction.

I was also struck by the obvious and genuine depth of religious feeling expressed in the book, and which appears especially in Apuleius's description of the revelation of Isis at the end of the book. This description reminded me to some degree of a fragment of a relief that is depicted in Jane Harrison's Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion and which I believe was meant to represent Aphrodite emerging from the sea. I think the same beauty, radiance, and depth of religious feeling suffuses both Apuleius's description of the revelation of Isis and the relief of Aphrodite emerging from the sea. After studying both I do not find it hard to understand why many of the Romantic poets, such as Keats, turned to pagan religion for poetic inspiration. Isis's description of herself in Apuleius's account also reminded me to some degree of Krishna's description of himself in the Bhagavad Gita. So there is a lot in this book, and it is well worth the read!

Because of passages like the ones I quoted above I would recommend this book not only to those looking for a fun or entertaining read, but to anyone who is interested in the history of religion and Greek and Roman religion in particular. And I would recommend it especially to anyone who is under the illusion that pagan religion was nothing but an elaborate set of supersitions lacking in any real theological insight, or genuine sense of religious devotion. This book proves otherwise, and more than anything this work has reawoken an interest in me in studying both Greek and Roman religion and their theologies.

-Brian

My favorite classic
This is easily my favorite Classic work of literature.Unlike many of the other classics, such as the Odyssey, Iliad, Aeneid, and others, this book kept my attention the entire time and I couldn't wait to finish.Robert Graves does a tremendous job of translating it into an easily readable version.

great valentine's gift
book includes the original story of Cupid (Pysche). perfect gift for lovers possessing a sash of intelligence.

An enjoyable and enduring classic
Apuleius' The Golden Ass, or Metamorphoses, is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety.Composed in the second century, this picaresque work tells the tale of Lucius, a man whose curiosity in magic and indulgence of sexual pleasures leads him to accidently transform himself into an ass.What follows are the various trials and hardships he endures as well as the tales he hears throughout his travels.It is not until the intervention of the goddess Isis that Lucius is transformed back into a man, and he devotes the rest of his life to her cult.

Apuleius' storytelling is lively, witty, an often sexually explicit.Indeed, many forms of fetish are showcased within the pages, including beastiality.More often than not, the novel indulges readers in their guilty curiosities while also providing hilarious and adventurous prose, with a splash of red-streaked violence thrown in for good measure.However, despite being written nearly two-thousand years ago, what may shock the modern reader most is how approachable and familiar is not only the humor but also the sentiments and sensuality of these Roman characters.It is not difficult to imagine Lucius' world.

The Golden Ass offers readers a romp through ancient Rome through the eyes of a contemporary while also entertaining.It is also a highly revealing documentation of religion and magical belief in Greco-Roman polytheism, and contains the only complete description of the initiation into a Mystery cult.The true essence of the novel is that it is a fable culminating in the religious transformation of the individual and the embrace of salvation (soteria).However, the pagan salvation was not one of the afterlife, but of this life, and involved changing one's perspective of the world and also of life and death.The ass in the ancient world was seen as the most base of animals, an utter slave to its desires, and Lucius' transformation at the end should be read as symbolizing his overcoming of those passions.

The Golden Ass is bawdy and shocking, but also intelligent and satisfying.Graves' translation is fluid and easy to follow.The prose is as enjoyable (and perhaps rewarding) to read today as it no doubt was nearly two-millennia ago. ... Read more

Product Description
As private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian, the scholar Suetonius had access to the imperial archives and used them (along with eyewitness accounts) to produce one of the most colourful biographical works in history. "The Twelve Caesars" chronicles the public careers and private lives of the men who wielded absolute power over Rome, from the foundation of the empire under Julius Caesar and Augustus, to the decline into depravity and civil war under Nero and the recovery that came with his successors. A masterpiece of observation, anecdote and detailed physical description, "The Twelve Caesars" presents us with a gallery of vividly drawn - and all too human - individuals. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Not even close to being an ancient "National Enquirer"
The modern-day National Enquirer is a magazine tabloid that focuses primarily on celebrities and prominent figures, and essentially operates as a rumor mill; gossip, stories, exaggerations, and even resorting to actively fabricating elements of the story.


Suetonius is not a reporter, but neither is he a liar out to make up juicy stories.


In The Twelve Caesars, Suetonius essentially puts together stories, and TELLS YOU which stories he heard, and their believability.HE ACTIVELY TELLS YOU THAT A CERTAIN STORY IS ALMOST ENTIRELY LIKELY TO BE FICTIONAL, AND TELLS YOU TO BE AWARE THAT IT IS, AND THAT HE ONLY INCLUDES IT HERE FOR THE SAKE OF LETTING YOU KNOW THAT IT IS POSSIBLY FICTIONAL, AS WELL AS FOR COMPLETIONIST'S SAKE.


Suetonius's accounts are quite riveting, and unlike Titus Livius or Herodotos, he doesn't lie or embellish his stories, except for when he points out that a story is likely fictional or exaggerated.


The greatest likelihood is that these stories were the sort being circulated around the Roman world which he copies down, and after warning us that it is unauthentifiable or likely fictional tells us, basically, "make of it what you will"

Simply Epic
I had heard that Seutonius' usage of what were household names referring to prominent Roman citizens could be initially slightly discouraging for the casual reader - but they weren't. It is simply an epic read. Structured, to the point, at times gory, but gives great insight into the personalities of Julius Caesar and the following 11 emperors, and a glimpse into Roman life at the time. I couldn't put it down. It may be difficult to dissect Seutonius' own influence from the writing, but that just adds to the drama...

Great Book
Deliverd as promised.
Great book with greater insight into the rulers of Rome as they more likely were.

Brief Review of Suetonius
Suetonius' achievement is his brevity. He gives us the significant events in the rulership of each Caesar, some of their virtues and vices, and a few opinions. Plutarch is the better writer of style and narrative, but Suetonius suffices. The book is easy enough to read, and has a lot of anecdotes that are memorable.

His history makes Seneca's tragedies more realistic in the savage atrocities committed. The sacrifices of Astyanax and Polyxena in Seneca's The Trojan Women are believable. In light of Suetonius' history, I don't know that Seneca's tragedies had the shock value then that they have since. The use of ghosts are consistent between Suetonius and Seneca. Suetonius does not mythologize, except perhaps in stories of omens. If he reports legends or rumors, which is infrequent, he will usually say so.

The Twelve Caesars
well translated-flowing English.Interesting division of facts about 12 Caesars-lineage-good deeds-bad deeds and perversions and augers of the man's life. I recommend it for someone who wants to know a first hand viewpoint of the Caesars-esp. those who have been misinformed about the great Augustus. I am no historian so I don't know where personal opinion and political pressure coloured the history but I enjoyed it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

a modern poet's view of the 'sublime' poet of the 'late rebellion'
Wife to Mr. Milton: The Story of Marie Powell by Robert Graves (New York: Creative Age Press, Inc., 1944) 380pp.

Contents
Foreword
I. The Last Day of Christmas, 1641
II. An Alarm of the Plague
III. A Sight of Royalty, and of Another
IV. Life at Forest Hill
V. Mun Becomes a Soldier
VI. I Fall Into Piety and Out Again
VII. A Strange Tale of Sympathy
VIII. I Fall Into Disgrace
IX. An Account of Mr. John Milton
X. I Agree to Marriage
XI. Mr. Milton's Courtship
XII. My Marriage
XIII. I Am Taken to London
XIV. I Say Farewell to My Family
XV. I Come Back to Forest Hill
XVI. The Beginning of the War
XVII. My Husband Sends for Me
XVIII. I Am Persuaded to Return to My Husband
XIX. I Am Got With Child; and My Father is Ruined
XX. My Child is Born; and My Father Dies
XXI. I Speak With Mun Again
XXII. I Watch the King's Execution
XXIII. Evil News from Ireland
XXIV. My Husband Buys Fame at a High Price
Epilogue
Appendix
Glossary

Also by Robert Graves
Fiction
I, Claudius
Claudius the God
The Antigua Stamp
Count Belisarius
Sergeant Lamb's America
Non-Fiction
Goodbye to All That
T. E. Lawrence to His Biographers (With B. H. Liddell Hart)

Jacket copy of the first American edition, a Wartime Book, of 1944 :

With impressive literary power, with a beauty that makes this novel live and glow in the consciousness of the reader, Robert Graves unfolds the story of the tragic and eventful life of Marie Powell, who, at the age of sixteen, was pushed into marrying the man who was England's greatest epic poet - and knew it - John Milton.

This story, by an acknowledged master of the historical novel, has a triple fascination.

First, for its tender account of the romance Marie Powell found outside the walls of her tyrannical husband's house, and the utter misery to which he enforced her.

Then, for the astute study of the "sublime" Milton of Paradise Lost, at last portrayed in his true light, in those characteristics which led him to become Oliver Cromwell's Dr. Goebbels.

And further, for the brilliant account of one of the most breath-taking epochs in English history, when that kingdom was ravaged by a bloody civil war and the tides of fortune swayed from one to the other side of the opposing camps - the King against his parliament, tyranny against freedom - culminating in the dramatic execution of Charles I, and the establishment of a republic, all of which assumes added significance in the light of today's events.

Robert Graves needs no particular introduction to the American reading public, for at one stroke, his brilliantly successful novel, I, CLAUDIUS, established him as one of the outstanding historical novelists of our time. Graves was born in London in 1895, the son of Alfred Percival Graves, the poet. In his early years, he probably reaped more knowledge from his father's extensive library than from the six prep schools to which he was sent prior to his entering the famous Charterhouse. The First World War caused him to set aside the idea of going to Oxford. He promptly applied for, and obtained, a commission in a Welsh regiment, in which he served until he was wounded in 1917, when he was sent to Oxford to convalesce. Siegfried Sassoon was a fellow officer of his, and it was at that time that Graves brought out his first book of verse. At Oxford, he was married to Nancy Nicholson, and, owing to serious financial difficulties, he was not able to graduate from St. John's College until 1926. After Oxford, Robert Graves went to Egypt, where he was a professor at the University of Cairo. He next resided in Majorca, where he conducted the Seizin Press with Laura Riding, until the Spanish civil war brought an end to his activities there. In addition to several volumes of verse, Graves is the author of such other successes as COUNT BELISARIUS and SERGEANT LAMB'S AMERICA, and his autobiography, GOODBYE TO ALL THAT, with its inevitable sequel, BUT IT STILL GOES ON.

From David Copperfield by Charles Dickens:

'Do you recollect the date,' said Mr. Dick, looking earnestly at me, and taking up his pen to note it down, 'when King Charles the First had his head cut off?'

I said I believed it happened in the year sixteen hundred and forty-nine.

'Well,' returned Mr. Dick, scratching his ear with his pen, and looking dubiously at me.'So the books say; but I don't see how that can be.Because, if it was so long ago, how could the people about him have made that mistake of putting some of the trouble out of his head, after it was taken off, into mine?'

I was very much surprised by the inquiry; but could give no information on this point.

...I was going away, when he directed my attention to the kite.

'What do you think of that for a kite?' he said.

I answered that it was a beautiful one.I should think it must have been as much as seven feet high.

'I made it.We'll go and fly it, you and I,' said Mr. Dick.'Do you see this?'

He showed me that it was covered with manuscript, very closely and laboriously written; but so plainly, that as I looked along the lines, I thought I saw some allusion to King Charles the First's head again, in one or two places.

A great find...
I happened upon this book in a library sale, and so glad I picked it up! The prose in this book is astoundingly gorgeous....poetry.

The details of everyday life in the period are vast, it's all intertwined in a bitter marriage and life of John Milton...told through his wife who was forced into marriage with him at 16...2 temperments so unsuited to one another. She loved another.

You'll love this gem of a book. I am surprised it is not more well known. ... Read more

Product Description
A work first published in 1948 in which Graves argues that the language of poetic myth current in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe was a magical language bound up with popular religious ceremonies in honour of the Moon-goddess, or Muse - some dating from the Old Stone Age. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Review of the Review
I do not know who wrote the review of this book, but Sassoon did not die during the war.He lived to a ripe old age and wrote a famous triology of novels based on his life.Wilfred Owen, the other great poet, did die during WW I. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A GREAT Robert Graves Trove of Information
This is a rare and hard to find edition of one of Robert Graves best unknown works. Well worth the looking for. ... Read more

Product Description
This exhaustive exploration of the Hebrew myths and the book of Genesis resulted from a remarkable collaboration between one scholar raised as a strict Protestant and one raised as a strict Jew. It goes beyond Christian biblical and Judaic myth and incorporates midrashes, folk tales, apocryphal texts, and other obscure sources to extend and complete the stories. An intriguing view of the suppressed and censored pre-biblical accounts is the result, along with a rich sense of a culture consisting of oral and literary traditions, where the spiritual is deeply rooted in landscape and history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Graves and Patai's HEBREW MYTHS, THE BOOK OF GENESIS
This is a must read for anyone interested in myths of creation.It delves into the various myths that were left out of the final collation of myths in Genesis an discusses why they were.All in all a good study.

Genesis Stories in their Own Context
The authors compare and correlate stories and themes from 61 stories in Genesis with other Jewish sources on the same events or themes.Some of these are folk tales presenting variations of the Genesis stories.Others are fanciful reflections from later eras.Some provide background or fill in details missing from the stories in Genesis, answering some of the questions that arise for later generations in different cultures.

The authors compare the Genesis stories with the myths and legends of contemporaneous peoples in the Middle Eastern region.These are also correlated with the later "classical" cultures, including the Greeks and Persians.This book represents a careful and detailed collaboration over a period of years.

Mystical Eastern Worldview
Cover notes describe the contents:
"Sixty-one stories of cosmic forces, deities, angels and demons, giants and heroes, from Genesis and other ancient Hebrew and Aramaic sources...."This work provides good insights into the mythic and mystical eastern worldview as a whole.

This is helpful and instructive to the analytical western rationalist cultures, which tend to discount the creative imaginative aspects of human consciousness and the insights this provides to unseen realities and the interconnected character of all creation common to most other cultural worldviews.

Esoteric and Fanciful
It is fascinating to see what Jewish tradition has done with the dominant themes and personalities from the Genesis foundations of the Torah.The highly esoteric and fanciful nature of many of the later Jewish legends provides insight into the view Jewish people have taken of their scriptures.

Their intimate and affectionate attitude toward the Torah and Writings is surprisingly, but refreshingly, different from the recently-dominant American Christian insistence on taking a literal reductionist historical view, which derives from Enlightenment Rationalism.

The Jewish people throughout their history apparently had a personal and dynamic relationship with their Scriptures, an affectionate and respectful reverence, which was interactive, not academic and limiting.

These two authors bring a resourceful combination of backgrounds and skills to this task.Robert Graves is a British poet and prolific author, from a Protestant background, and a graduate of St John's College, Oxford.Among his notable works is a translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, jointly with Omar Ali-Shah.

Patai was raised as a German-speaking Hungarian Jew.He studied in rabbinical seminaries and earned two doctorates, one of which was in Semitic languages and oriental history.He was ordained as a rabbi, and is likewise a well-known author.

As they discuss the themes of these stories, these writers also provide good information on several of the ethnic peoples mentioned in the Bible, discussing their possible origin and customs.

Rare resources on mythology
Hard to find resource on Hebrew/Jewish mythology connecting to Classic Greek mythology and history. Very readable.

Graves on Genesis
Basically, Robert Graves does for the 61 stories he finds in the Book of Genesis what he did for The Greek Myths.This time he employs the aid of an eminent Jewish anthropologist and Biblical scholar, Raphael Patai (not Pata).It appears that this is a little difficult to find right now in 2006, but the search is worth the effort.

Genesis' pre-biblical origins
The authors do not reverently approach Genesis as a God-inspired Holy Text. From a "Secular Humanist" or Anthropological point of view, they attempt to identify Genesis' _pre-biblical_ origins in motifs identified with earlier myths of the Sumerians and Mesopotamians. This line of reasoning understands that the Hebrews at some later point in time transformed and reinterpreted earlier Mesopotamian concepts about Man's origins and his relationship with God from myths and literature (one case being the Epic of Gilgamesh). In addition to this investigation of pre-biblical myths (or pre-biblical literature), the authors also investigate later Jewish and Christian traditions, folklore, commentary on Genesis' themes. ... Read more

Product Description
Robert Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, translator and novelist.

[Source: Wikipedia.org] ... Read more