Robert Graves, The assault heroic 1895-1926

436 Pages·1987·9.594 MB·English

by  Richard Perceval Graves

RO BERT
GRAVES
T H E ASSAU LT HEROIC
1895*1926
iRICHARD PERCEm L GRAVES
ISBN 0-tj70-fll32fc>-5 FPT>^2M-C1S
In Robert Graves: The Assault Heroic, the poet’s
nephew—a distinguished biographer in his own
right before turning to this subject—offers the
reader a remarkable narrative about a young
poet’s struggle to find inspiration. With metic­
ulous judgment and a deep understanding of his
uncle’s difficult, unsettling character, Mr. Graves
has created an unusually intimate and closely
observed picture of the poet’s early years.
Expertly synthesizing a vast amount of newly
available material, both published and unpub­
lished (including a unique family archive), the
author not only sheds new light on Robert
Graves’s early life, but demonstrates a careful
scholarship that places Graves studies—both bio­
graphical and critical—on a firm foundation. His
work also substantially revises our understanding
of the poet’s brilliant but impressionistic auto­
biography, Goodbye to All That—a work written
at a time when Graves was in a mood of passion­
ate revolt against most of the family, friends, and
institutions that had dominated his life until
then—while paying heed to its profound
originality and enduring power.
The portrayal of the poet’s upbringing begins
with a detailed account of his parents: Alfred
Perceval Graves, an Irish poet who was made a
Welsh Bard at the Bangor Eisteddfod in 1902,
and the German-bom Amalie von Ranke, an
ambitious, good-natured woman whose deter­
mination makes her a fascinating character quite
ahead of her time. In their lively home, among
his sisters and brothers, Robert enjoyed an idyllic
Edwardian childhood, one in which artistic
achievement was taken for granted. Predictably,
he went on to public school, where writing
became the necessary antidote to the usual
roughhousing.
With great skill and careful scholarship, Mr.
Graves offers a powerful description of Robert’s
marriage to his first wife, Nancy, his tempera­
mental friendship with the poet Siegfried
Sassoon, and his first encounters with Laura
Riding. But the principal focus of this fascinating
volume is the period between 1914 and 1918,
when Robert served in France during the war.
Here the author grasps the mood and tone of
Robert’s own memoir of his war years, but
(Continued on back flap)
03240087

I

ROBERT GRAVES

RICHARD PERCEVAL GRAVES
ROBERT
GRAVES
i ; ;
a s a l e t

h ero ic
1 8 r ' - n 2 6
Elisabeth Sifton Books
VIKING
ELISABETH SIFTON BOOKS • VIKING
Viking Penguin Inc.
40 West 23rd Street,
New York, New York 10010, U.S.A.
First American Edition
Published in 1987
Copyright © Richard Perceval Graves, 1986
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Graves, Richard Perceval.
Robert Graves, the assault heroic, 1895-1926.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Graves, Robert, 1895- —Biography—Youth.
2. Authors, English—20th century—Biography. I. Title.
PR6013.R35Z717 1987 821'.912 [B] * 86-40249
ISBN 0-670-81326-5
Printed in the United States of America by
R. R. Donnelley & Sons, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Set in Ehrhardt