Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of 'I, Claudius' who was also one of the finest poets of the twentieth century. Robert Graves (1895 -1985) placed his poetry far above his prose. He once declared that from the age of 15 poetry had been his ruling passion and that he lived his life according to poetic principles, writing in prose only to pay the bills and that he bred the pedigree dogs of his prose to feed the cats of his poetry. Yet it’s for his prose that he’s most famous today, including 'I Claudius', his brilliant account of the debauchery of Imperial Rome, and 'Goodbye to All That', the unforgettable memoir of his early life including the time during the First World War when he was so badly wounded at the Somme that The Times listed him as dead.
With
Paul O’Prey Emeritus Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Roehampton, London
Fran Brearton Professor of Modern Poetry at Queen’s University, Belfast
And
Bob Davis Professor of Religious and Cultural Education at the University of Glasgow
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Robert Graves (ed. Paul O'Prey), In Broken Images: Selected Letters of Robert Graves 1914-1946 (Hutchinson, 1982)
Robert Graves (ed. Paul O'Prey), Between Moon and Moon: Selected letters of Robert Graves 1946-1972 (Hutchinson, 1984)
Robert Graves (ed. Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward), The Complete Poems (Penguin Modern Classics, 2003)
Robert Graves, I, Claudius (republished by Penguin, 2006)
Robert Graves, King Jesus (republished by Penguin, 2011)
Robert Graves, The White Goddess (republished by Faber, 1999)
Robert Graves, The Greek Myths (republished by Penguin, 2017)
Robert Graves (ed. Michael Longley), Selected Poems (Faber, 2013)
Robert Graves (ed. Fran Brearton, intro. Andrew Motion), Goodbye to All That: An Autobiography: The Original Edition (first published 1929; Penguin Classics, 2014)
William Graves, Wild Olives: Life in Majorca with Robert Graves (Pimlico, 2001)
Richard Perceval Graves, Robert Graves: The Assault Heroic, 1895-1926 (Macmillan, 1986, vol. 1 of the biography)
Richard Perceval Graves, Robert Graves: The Years with Laura, 1926-1940 (Viking, 1990, vol. 2 of the biography)
Richard Perceval Graves, Robert Graves and the White Goddess, 1940-1985 (Orion, 1995, vol. 3 of the biography)
Miranda Seymour: Robert Graves: Life on the Edge (Henry Holt & Co, 1995)
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.9 | This is in our time from BBC Radio 4, |
| 0:07.5 | and this is one of more than a thousand episodes you can find on BBC Sounds and on our website. |
| 0:13.1 | If you scroll down the page for this edition, you can find a reading list to go with it. |
| 0:17.4 | I hope you enjoyed the programme. |
| 0:19.6 | Hello, Robert Graves 1895 to 1985 was one of the finest |
| 0:24.5 | poets of the 20th century. He was to declare that from the age of 15, poetry had been his ruling |
| 0:30.9 | passion and that he lived his life according to poetic principles writing in prose only to pay the |
| 0:37.3 | bills. Yet it is for his prose |
| 0:39.2 | that he is most famous today, including I. Claudius, his brilliant account of the debauchery |
| 0:44.5 | of imperial Rome, and goodbye to all that, the unforgettable memoir of his early life, in which he was |
| 0:51.0 | so badly wounded at the song that the Times listed him as dead. |
| 0:55.2 | We meet to discuss Robert Graves are Paula Prey, Emeritus Professor of Modern Literature |
| 0:59.8 | at the University of Rouhampton, London, |
| 1:02.3 | Fran Breerton, Professor of Modern Poetry at Queen's University of Belfast, |
| 1:06.3 | and Bob Davis, Professor of Religious and Cultural Education at the University of Glasgow. |
| 1:12.1 | Bob, Graves was born in Wimbledon in southwest London. |
| 1:16.6 | How do you tell us something about his life as a child? |
| 1:19.6 | Well, Robert's born in 1895 into a family that instantly has a kind of wow factor |
| 1:29.5 | when you cross over the threshold of that Wimbledon home. |
| 1:33.7 | That's both the Graves' descent and the Von Ranks. |
| 1:38.2 | His father, Alfred Percival Graves, is 49 when Robert is born and Robert is a child of his second large family |
... |
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