 amazing, 2007-06-25
Aside from the incredible amount of scholarship that has gone into this book, it is extremely entertaining. Roman history was certainly full of entrancing characters and Graves manages to get inside of the Roman Court in an amazingly modern and realistic way.
Meet Claudius, the long-suffering, wily, educated old gentleman who somehow manages to survive (for a while) life in the Roman court.
However this is much more than Claudius' story. Meet Livia the grandmother from hell, Caligula, the lunatic king who should be put into the asylum, and Tiberius who spends his days faffing around on a remote island. And they are just some of a large cast of madcapped lunnies who Graves somehow finds a deep empathy with.
My copy was stolen on the train coming back from Alexandria to Cairo so I'm yet to see how it ends. If the thief manages to get through this, he'll be a better man for it.
Salve, Imperator!, 2003-12-17
Fantastic - divine even! Graves has written a fantastic pair of novels here, to the standard of Claudius himself, as the level of detail given is absolutely astounding.His portrayal of the traits of every character is flawless, giving the reader a most vivid picture of the character while reading. Yet this level of sophistication of the facts is not echoed in the actual writing, as this book is accessible to anyone, whether or not they have an interest in that particular period in history. Someone once said (can't remember who!) - 'If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying' - "I, Claudius" is certainly a book which anyone should have in their collection.
Among the best books I have ever read., 2006-10-01
This book was more or less the first I read on Roman history, and it has set off a thirst for Ancient Rome that had led to half a dozen more purchases (none of which can compare to Robert Graves' brilliant novels).
I'm not sure what it is that makes these books unputdownable. I read both in a week, and not being a particlarly fast reader that's very quick for me. Robert Graves styles it completely as a history. When you're reading it there is no doubt in your mind that Claudius is talking to you. There is very little dialogue, and there shouldn't be, because as these events occured two thousand years ago all conversations he puts in must be by their nature nebulous. The majority of the thing seems to be factual, and although historians have critisised Robert Graves for painting an incorrect picture of Claudius for the public, everything is firmly rooted in fact.
I can only remember one part in the whole of the split story that got a bit tedious, which was Claudius' Triumph (it went on a bit), but since there are usually a dozen points I yawn at in an ordinary novel, that is exceptional. I have to say that his two books climb up to my favourite five novels ever, and being at the stage in my life when I need to make important decisions about my future career, Graves has steered me irrevocably towards history.
"How many twisted stories remain to be straightened out?", 2006-12-05
In I, Claudius, Robert Graves creates the first person narrative of Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, known in Roman history as Claudius, widely regarded as an idiot. Telling the story of his family's rule from the beginning of the Christian era until his death fifty years later Claudius relates stories of his grandmother Livia, one of the most treacherous women in history, a woman who manipulated the imperial succession through poisonings, assassinations, marriages, and secret alliances. The reign of her son Tiberius is bloody, murderous, and corrupt. Tiberius's succession by Caligula, his insane grandson and the protégé of Livia, takes Rome into even more terrifying debauchery. Claudius's ultimate succession to the throne is widely regarded as a joke.
In Claudius, the God, Graves continues the story of Claudius, who is hugely popular when he first becomes Emperor, refusing many of the numerous titles claimed by his predecessors because he believes he has not yet earned them. Gradually, we observe the truism that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." His invasion of Britain, his relationship with his wife Messalina, and his attempts to control the succession to the throne show his attempts to manipulate Roman history and his own legacy. The reader develops enormous sympathy for this man who began his reign with pure motives but who was ultimately powerless to control his own destiny and that of Rome.
Characters are complex, fully developed humans, instead of cardboard, costumed ancients, and their machinations, though extremely bloody, show the conflicts that occur when absolute rule and republican sentiments contend for dominance, a conflict in which Graves says the saw parallels to World War I and its aftermath.
Taken together, these two novels of Claudius constitute what is arguably the greatest fictional biography ever written. Precise historical detail creates a rich tapestry of life in the period, while, at the same time, Graves's keen awareness of psychology leads to vibrant and believable characters behaving badly. The values (and lack of them) in the period are presented in dramatic scenes of violence and excess, and the fickleness of the masses (whom Claudius calls "the frog pool") is both realistic and sadly universal. A masterful characterization of a lesser known Caesar. Mary Whipple
An incredible achievement, 2005-09-16
How can a man, writing 1900 years after the event, with all the intervening history between, the rise and fall of great empires, nations and peoples transpiring, living in an age, so unlike any other that has preceded it, of modernity, of the motor car, of mass transport, of radio and advertisements, of mass democracy and mass culture be able to recreate a feel of one of the great civilizations of Antiquity, and to put living words into mouths of people long dead and have them not seem contrived or ridiculously grand and unreal, to not be blinded and dumbed by the reverence for the subject the passing of time usually bestows, to not be tempted into a petty judgemental posture of insance acts and grotesque gestures? I don't know. But Robert Graves achieves something I did not think possible anymore.
I have read the classics only in translation, and therefore I can only comment on what I know: there is a style and power to much of the classics that escapes many modern novels. Thousands of years later they are still more alive than much that can be read now, printed only last month. Robert Graves manages to achieve that same feel of directness, simplicity and power of Classical writing, which, in theory, should be so simple, but is actually extremely difficult.He gives us the dust of the Roman Empire, the flickering light of torches lighting marble corridors, and human interactions that decided the destiny of millions.
Written in the 1930s, the books, aside from their great artistic merit, have a profound and deeply moving message about the nature of tyranny and the people who uphold it. There is even a portrait of Caligula which is not entirely without sympathy (and some great comic scenes).
The reader warms to the narrator, Claudius, and the novel's plot is very interesting and at times gripping.
From my reading of Twentieth Century Literature these works along with Graves' other, Count Belisarius, as amongst the very greatest; and an incredible achievement.
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