I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Emperor of the Romans, Born 10 BC, Murdered and Deified AD 54

Robert Graves

Penguin Books Limited, Aug 3, 2006 - Biography & Autobiography - 395 pages

Bringing to life the subterfuge and double-dealing of Roman nobility, Robert Graves's I, Claudius brings the ancient world to life with startling clarity and meticulous realism. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is a includes an introduction by Barry Unsworth. Despised for his weakness and regarded by his family as little more than a stammering fool, the nobleman Claudius quietly survives the intrigues, bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the imperial Roman dynasties. In I, Claudius he watches from the sidelines to record the reigns of its emperors: from the wise Augustus and his villainous wife Livia to the sadistic Tiberius and the insane excesses of Caligula. Written in the form of Claudius' autobiography, this is the first part of Robert Graves's brilliant account of the madness and debauchery of ancient Rome, and stands as one of the most celebrated, gripping historical novels ever written. If you enjoyed I, Claudius, you might like Graves's sequel Claudius the God, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'An imaginative and hugely readable account of the early decades of the Roman Empire ... racy, inventive, often comic' Daily Telegraph 'Still an acknowledged masterpiece and a model for historical fiction ... sympathetic and intensely involving: a great feat of imagination' Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall

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User Review  - mattries37315 - LibraryThing

A dying man who survived to old age thanks to physical effects of an illness at a young age that made defective in the eyes of his family tells history about the deadly power politics of early ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - burritapal - LibraryThing

What a story! What a lot of heads rolling! What intrigues! All this takes place around the time of Jesus being born, but I guess they didn't know about that in Rome. Claudius was the stammering, lame ...

About the author

Robert Ranke Graves (1895-1985) was a British poet, novelist, and critic. He is best known for the historical novel I, Claudius and the critical study of myth and poetry The White Goddess. He wrote his autobiography, Goodbye to All That, in 1929, and it was soon established as a modern classic. He also translated Apuleius, Lucan and Suetonius for the Penguin Classics, and compiled the first modern dictionary of Greek Mythology, The Greek Myths. His translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (with Omar Ali-Shah) is also published in Penguin. Barry Unsworth is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and holds an honorary doctorate from Manchester University. He is the author of 15 novels, among them 'Sacred Hunger', which won the 1992 Booker Prize. 'Pascali's Island' (1980) and 'Morality Play' (1995) were shortlisted for the same prize. His most recent novel 'The Ruby in Her Navel' is due for publication in 2006. He lives in Italy.

Bibliographic information

• Title: I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Emperor of the Romans, Born 10 BC, Murdered and Deified AD 54; Modern classics; Penguin classics; Penguin modern classics
• Author: Robert Graves
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, revised
• Publisher: Penguin Books Limited, 2006
• ISBN: 0141188596, 9780141188591
• Length: 395 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / General; Fiction / General; Fiction / Historical / Ancient