Good-Bye to All That: An Autobiography

GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT is the autobiography of the 34 year old Robert Graves, who, at this book's 1929 publication, was a former army captain who served with distinction in The Great War, an emerging poet, and a father, separated from his wife, with four young children. As a Yank, I'm not quite sure where Graves fit in the English class system of his day. But his family was distinguished and comfortable and Graves endured the bullying at Charterhouse, a prominent English public school.Certainly, the two great themes of GBTAT are life in the British army in World War I and the friendships of Graves, the poet. For anyone with special interests in the war, I recommend Chapter 15, where he describes his participation in the disastrous Battle of Loos, a poorly planned and executed debacle where many senior officers showed haughty indifference to the plight of the common soldier. Those interested in the lives of poets might read Chapter 28, where Graves describes the many poets living in his midst at Oxford in 1919. Meanwhile, Chapter 29 offers profiles of T.E. Lawrence, his friend, and Thomas Hardy, who Graves visits while biking with his wife.Graves's style in GBTAT is fabulous. This style is very efficient--he never lingers--yet also slightly discursive. This has the effect of building a rich texture around the distinctive theme of each chapter. In Chapter 9, for example, Graves describes his experiences as a rock climber. Here, his subject is the techniques and dangers of this sport, as well as its sometimes eccentric practitioners. But, he also works in a story about George Mallory, a mountaineer who died on Mount Everest, who was a friend and teacher at Charterhouse. This allows Graves to comment on the grim culture of the public schools of his day, where the beneficent Mallory was wasted. At the end of this chapter, my marginalia reads: fluid and very interesting.Likewise, Graves's voice is also fabulous. Basically, he is an honest observer, always near a center of interest, who is never seriously political. As he writes, he both sketches the traditions of his era while he personifies the aspirations and experiences of his rising generation. Once in a while, there is a dated remark. But even this adds to GBTAT, since it helps Graves summon and explore a vanished world. A great work!

There's not a lot I can add to what other reviewers have already said about Graves's memoir, so I'll dispense with a summary and say briefly what I liked and did not like about it. Take it or leave it.First of all, Graves knows how to write--this memoir is just as entertaining and fun to read as any of his novels. His literacy and narrative ability immediately set him apart from many of the other World War I memoirists--whose books are often clunky and poorly written--as do his wit and his eye for the significant detail. The book is very funny in many places and deeply moving in others. His descriptions of trench life are suitably depressing, as are his tales of the randomness of World War I violence and even the suicidal tendencies of some of the soldiers.The only things I disliked about Good-bye to All That were Graves's obvious bitterness and the lackluster final third. Graves, of course, is entitled to be bitter about the war--it was a terrible experience for thousands of people--but his view of the war as expressed here is imbalanced. His narrative is significantly skewed and rather self-pitying in places. Also, the strength of his narrative peters out near the end, when he spends some time teaching in Cairo. The last few chapters read more like notable miscellany than a coherent memoir.Those two misgivings aside, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Not only was it a good memoir, it was a remarkably good source (I read this for a graduate seminar in World War I) for the attitudes and ideals of the "sensitive artistic types" following World War I. If you're interested in comparing this memoir with a vastly different perspective, I recommend reading it along with Ernst Jünger's Storm of Steel.Recommended.

There's certainly no shortage of Iraq/Afghanistan-related war memoirs, and many of them are quite good - but Robert Graves ghastly and bitter retelling of his time in the trenches of WWI is worth reading simply to put more recent in stories in more appropriate context.In the trenches, during irrational attacks, units would lose thousands of men in one fell swoop - compared to recent Iraq battles where 10 soldiers were considered "heavy casualties." We in 2013 simply can't relate to what these soldiers of 1914-16 went through.Graves is as bitter as can be, and his disgust and anger powers the memoir, but it's in the cold British style that gives the best punch. Instead of emotional ranting (that is common in more modern memoirs) he plays it pretty straight.Despite that, it is a dated style, which takes some getting used to. Of course, it's dated because he's not writing down to his audience - but expects them to follow along. Some of his asides do contain references that are no longer that relevant.For a student of war-related literature, this is still a must-read. It speaks very effectively to the experience of a young soldier in wartime, and many of the same emotions he endured are just the same today, both during and post-war. While I've found many other books ultimately more compelling, this is a harbinger for much war-related literature that we read today.

I should have read this classic at school but left it much later to read. Young Graves seems really unlikeable and I wanted to give up reading the section about his childhood. I persevered and his description of life and death in the trenches was worth it. I quite forgave him for being such a shallow youngster and ended up admiring him for his conduct during WW1. Shame that the final section of the book confirmed my original view of him. For a real insight into the horrors of war this takes some beating.

An outstanding recollection of life during the Great War. It is so helpful for those who wish to attempt to think constructively about 'the war to end all wars', to read about how those involved at the time felt and thought. We have heard so much from those who would characterize all involved as deluded. It is good to be reminded of the real challenges the army faced and the camerarderie felt towards those they served with.A first class read.

Recipient very happy indeed

Deserved 20th Century classic.

A moving telling of what WW1 was really like for the British soldier.