I, Claudius [and] Claudius The God and His Wife Messalina.

GRAVES, Robert.

$4,200.00

Item Number: 144894

London: Arthur Barker, 1934.

First editions of Graves’ celebrated Claudius novels. Octavo, 2 volumes, original cloth. Both volumes are near fine in very good to near fine dust jackets. Rare in the dust jackets and particularly so in such nice condition.

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).