cant seem to let go of Robert Graves. *The White Goddess* is completely fascinating, and completely deranged, a tapestry of wishful thinking, second-hand learning, and personal needs; his etymologies are barmy, as Nick Lowe has reminded us (so, treat your copy of his *Greek Myths* as fiction, a pendant to *The White Goddess*); his treatments of Jewish and Christian story just as idiosyncratic and mad. His Claudius is not historys Claudius (a much darker figure, much more complicit in the Empires crimes than Graves can admit). Graves was touchy, selfish, pretentious, arrogant, intent on imposing his mythohistory on poetry and the world. And yet--he was a great poet, despite all; several of his novels are unforgettable (yes, including the flawed Claudius books); as a personal statement (rather than truth) *The White Goddess* is wonderful, as are dozens of the essays. He is one of the 20th centurys half-embarrassing, half-thrilling greats.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 17:15:47 +0000
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