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From the great days of Augustus and the cruelties of Tiberius to the deified insanity of Caligula, Claudius records a story breathtaking in its murderousness, greed and folly.Tags
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I remember watching the excellent tv series on BBC in the 70's and so I was delighted when I was given the book by a friend not long ago and I enjoyed that even more.Very readable account of the days of Augustus and Caligula and the cruelty and scheming in ancient Rome.Everything is seen through the eyes of Claudius who probably only survives as he is perceived as a stammering fool..It takes a wise man to play the fool.Great read.
I love these books! It all started when Swedish Television ran the TV-show again, I think that was at the beginning of the nineties. I watched every episode I could. And then I read the books. Loved them. I'm interested in history, and Rome is fascinating. Claudius is an interesting character, and so are many of the other characters.
I've read them two or three times by now, and I really recommend them! Especially if you are interested in historical novels.
I've read them two or three times by now, and I really recommend them! Especially if you are interested in historical novels.
Biographic novel of Claudius, and the years leading up to his rein. Very readable, excellent research.
Fantastic. The archtype of the genre. If you enjoy these two books, try Colleen McCullough's 'First Man in Rome' series.
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once upon a time ~ ancient world
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Books That Changed Our Perspective
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Author Information
259+ Works 40,616 Members
Robert Graves (also known as Robert Ranke Graves) was born in 1895 in London and served in World War I. Goodbye to All That: an Autobiography (1929), was published at age thirty three, and gave a gritty portrait of his experiences in the trenches. Graves edited out much of the stark reality of the book when he revised it in 1957. Although his most show more popular works, I, Claudius (1934) and its sequel, Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina (1935), were produced for television by the BBC in 1976 and seen in America on Masterpiece Theater, he was also famous as a poet, producing more than 50 volumes of poetry. Graves was awarded the 1934 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for both I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Also a distinguished academic, Graves was a professor of English in Cairo, Egypt, in 1926, a poetry professor at Oxford in the 1960s, and a visiting lecturer at universities in England and the U.S. He wrote translations of Greek and Latin works, literary criticism, and nonfiction works on many other topics, including mythology and poetry. He lived most of his life in Majorca, Spain, and died after a protracted illness in 1985. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Robert Graves has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
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dtv (1300)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- I, Claudius [and] Claudius the God
- Original title
- I, Claudius; Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina
- Original publication date
- 1934 (I Claudius) (I Claudius); 1935 (Claudius the God) (Claudius the God)
- People/Characters
- Claudius I, Emperor of Rome; Valeria Messalina (wife of Emperor Claudius I)
- Important places
- Rome, Italy
- First words
- I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus this-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles), who was once, and not so long ago, known to my friends and relatives and associates as "Claudius the Id... (show all)iot", or "That Claudius", or Claudius the Stammerer", or Clau-Clau-Claudius", or at best as "Poor Uncle Claudius", am now about to write this strange history of my life.…
- Disambiguation notice
- The German version "Ich Claudius Kaiser und Gott" should be seperated from the two volume original English edition. Working with the author, Hans Rothe, it has been reduced to less than half of the original text, reworked and... (show all) "uncluttered". This is explained the the "Vorwort" to the German edition by Robert von Ranke Graves dated August 1934.
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Statistics
- Members
- 525
- Popularity
- 56,833
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.33)
- Languages
- English, German, Spanish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 12
