Chosen by Graves's widow and son and writing with their cooperation, the author presents the first complete and intimate biography of the controversial, mercurial British poet, scholar, and author of I, Claudius, The White Goddess, and Goodbye to All That.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Robert Graves (1895-1985), egocentric, obstreperous novelist, poet, critic and scholar of classical myth (The White Goddess), mythologized his own life, according to this intimate biography. Shell-shocked in WWI, Graves, enmeshed in homosexual circles, abruptly married strong-minded feminist Nancy Nicholson but abandoned her and their four children for charismatic American poet Laura Riding, leaving England and settling with her in Mallorca in 1930. Graves endorsed Riding's megalomaniacal belief in her supernatural powers, idealizing her as a savior and prophet of world peace, and as his muse, embodiment of the all-powerful ancient Goddess worshipped in matriarchal societies. But when Riding ditched him, Graves discovered the muse no longer resided in her. Despite the loving domesticity provided by his second wife, Beryl Pritchard, Graves pursued a series of young women, turning each into his muse. This, observes Seymour, was his way of atoning for guilt over the men he had killed in WWI, Riding's suicide attempt and the family he had abandoned. British novelist Seymour, biographer of Henry James and Ottoline Morrell, had full cooperation from Graves's widowed second wife and son William in writing this demythologizing biography. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Seymour (Ottoline Morell: Life on the Grand Scale, LJ 8/93) divides Graves's life "on the edge" into five parts, each of which explores the effect of a specific woman on his life and writing. In Seymour's opinion, these women became his source of inspiration. Seymour explores and develops the details of Graves's life but all too often fails to relate what impact the life's events had on such classics as The White Goddess and I, Claudius. The most interesting part of her biography is the account of Graves's experience as an officer in World War I, which afflicted him mentally throughout his life. Overall, Graves comes across as a man of strong conviction?pugnacious with enemies, generous with friends. Graves believed, "Poetry contains nothing haphazard," yet his life, as revealed in this biography, was ironically very haphazard; for example, he left his wife and four children to live with the American poet Laura Riding. This is a detailed, anecdotal biography for informed readers.?Tim Gavin, Episcopal Acad., Merion, Pa.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant portrait of a unique man,
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This review is from: Robert Graves: Life on the Edge (Hardcover)
Robert Graves was astonishingly prolific and worked in many genres, so much so that for a while I thought there must be several writers by that name. He wrote lyric poetry, scholarly studies of mythology, drama, criticism, and journalism, he translated from Latin, and is probably best known for his potboilers "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God," works that he considered purely commercial and took little interest in. And, as Miranda Seymour makes clear, he was as odd a duck as ever walked. His life was defined by the women to whom he devoted himself. "Abased himself" would perhaps be the better term. The first and most influential was the American Laura Riding, a second-rate poet who fancied herself some sort of prophetess who would save the world from war and turned Graves into her adoring puppy. Later in life Graves devoted himself to a series of young women, each of whom he claimed embodied "the goddess" in whose service he thought he dwelled. Seymour (a novelist herself) writes beautifully, and with the cooperation of key members of the Graves family she has produced what will surely be the definitive biography of Graves for years to come. She brings to life his almost effortless genius but never stoops to hero worship--she is unstinting in her examination of his faults. Here we see every aspect of Graves: his brilliance, his foolishness, his free spirit, his sexual repression, his generosity, his egocentricity. It is a portrait as fully round as one could possibly want.
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