"I, TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS… AM NOW ABOUT TO WRITE THIS STRANGE HISTORY OF MY LIFE"

GRAVES, Robert. I, Claudius. London: Arthur Barker, 1934. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $5500.

First edition of Graves' most famous novel, a very nice copy in the original dust jacket.

Drawing from such ancient sources as Tacitus and Suetonius, Graves created the secret "autobiography" of Claudius, narrated "in the imaginatively and idiosyncratically conceived persona of the emperor" (Drabble, 412). "In I, Claudius and its successor, Claudius the God, Robert Graves wrote two of the most resonant historical novels of the century… In impersonating Claudius, Graves displays a scholarly and imaginative understanding of the mores and ethos of the Roman world, and sensationalizes his material only as much as must be expected from a novelist with a living to earn… Graves' people are real Romans, and Claudius' autobiography is credible as the product of a Roman mind" (Parker, 175). Both the Modern Library and Time magazine named the book one of their 100 Best Novels, and the BBC dramatized it in 1976 with Derek Jacobi as the lead. The author was a gifted classicist at Charterhouse and later Oxford, but decided to pursue literature and poetry after he completed his degree. Graves translated Apuleius' The Golden Ass and Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars; he also published a controversial encyclopedia of Greek Myths containing some of his own original theories. With folding genealogical table at rear; Hugh Walpole's review of this book tipped to half title. Bookplate of the Book Society, designed by Edmund Dulac; pencilled owner inscription dated 1934.

Book with spine foot bumped and minor spotting to text block edges; dust jacket with faint toning to spine, light edge wear, and a small nick to upper edge of front panel. A very good copy.