- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (25 Feb 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140274200
- ISBN-13: 978-0140274202
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 11 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
23,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8 in Books > Fiction > Poetry & Drama > Poetry > Genres > War
- #12 in Books > Biography > War & Espionage > World War I
- #17 in Books > Biography > Novelists, Poets & Playwrights > Poets
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More About the Author
Product Description
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
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.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
62 of 64 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
44 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A classic tale of the first World War
This book was an old friend but my copy was lost. My neighbours were going to Flanders and were most grateful to be able to read an account by someone who was actually there.
Published 8 months ago by Hillman
classic
I wont go into a long winded reason of why this book is great. its wonderfully written with wit and charm, mixed with true human suffering. A honest legacy left by a great writer. Read more
Published on 5 Nov 2009 by Mr. Pj Williams
A most moving account
"Goodbye to all that" is a most moving account of a young man's view of how it was to be thrown into the trenches of WW1 without so much as by your leave. Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2008 by Mr. Elliot Borthwick
Triste la Guerre
This highly dramatic (not wonderful) autobiography covers the first thirty years of the author's life, which were heavily marked by religion, public school and World War I. Read more
Published on 22 Nov 2008 by Luc REYNAERT
Brilliant and contradictory
A very useful story and full of insights. Graves is very matter of fact about the most horrific aspects of the war - summary executions, soldiers wanting to kill their officers,... Read more
Published on 29 Mar 2008 by Mr. John Conrad Mullen
Brilliant!!!
This is a most amazing book. It sounds totally current, although written decades ago. If you want to know the reality of war, not just World War One, but ALL wars, read this book. Read more
Published on 25 Jun 2002 by Jeffrey Zekas
HEROISM, COURAGE, TRUE!!!!!!
I bought this book for my history class & I have to say it's amazing. It's not happy clappy, this book gets to the rawity of war and it's obvious Robert Graves isn't afraid to... Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2001
best world war one memoir and more
robert graves' masterpiece reads wonderfully well seventy years after it was written...in fact, its even more interesting now because of the feeling of visiting a time so remote... Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2001 by Omar N. Ali
graphic picture of the events around an individual war
Whilst the book pretends to be an autobiography of the author through a period of time in his life, the essence is his remembered experiences from the first world war. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2000
Flamboyant Masterpiece
I have always thought this book is vintage Graves: sentimental, varied in tone, boisterous at times, proving him an absolute genius with words and most of all, an incurable... Read more
Published on 10 Aug 2000 by Helena
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