I, Claudius
Ratings70
Average rating4.1
An ‘insiders' account of how decadent and violent the times were. Claudius, whose lineage provided an interesting vantage point, narrates and illuminates the privilege and precariousness of the ruling class.
I grew up with the BBC adaptation, which is one of the few adaptations that's better than the original, but the book is still very good. It's a leisurely read– almost everything happens in some post-hoc narration rather than on the page itself– but it's supposed to be a historian's account rather than a melodrama. is it, like, historically accurate? No, not at all, but that's not the point. It's based on Seutonius' writings, writings that Graves himself translated; it's supposed to be biased. This novel is one long meditation on historicity and the role of historians. It's sad that its legion of imitators don't seem to get that. Every single book and show and movie that covers the Julio-Claudians is deeply indebted to this book (or the BBC miniseries) either as a direct descendant (HBO's Rome, [b:The Cicero Trilogy 32310982 The Cicero Trilogy Robert Harris https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508696043l/32310982.SY75.jpg 52938876], [b:I Am Rome 174146857 I Am Rome (Julius Caesar, #1) Santiago Posteguillo https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1692261636l/174146857.SY75.jpg 95030492]) or as self-conscious flouting of its influence (Sky's Domina, and quite obviously [b:I Am Livia 20874139 I Am Livia Phyllis T. Smith https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441814072l/20874139.SX50.jpg 26171345], two narratives that beat the same dead horse into shoe leather). Honestly, the only successor who seems to get Robert Graves' intention isn't writing historical fiction at all; he's George RR Martin and you might be familiar with his little book series. If only for historical significance, and its contribution to the genre of not just Roman historical fiction but all historical fiction and literature in general (every I, [something] title is riffing off this novel in specific), this book is very much worth reading.
DNF @ 34%. This was the BBC radio production which was, oh gods, TERRIBLE. It has Derek Jacobi as Augustus (rather than Claudius) and is structured like so:
- An elderly Claudius narrating his biography (sounds of quill scratching)
- Bite-sized scenes from the past, featuring a wide cast of characters, doing some of the stuff he is talking about (lots of radio production values).
I got totally lost in all the different branches of the imperial Roman family, and ended up finding the bite-sized scenes frustrating, since I was like, WAIT WHO'S THIS NOW?! The actors were all wonderful - and I loved listening to it as a play - but the format of micro-flashbacks was just awful. I couldn't keep anything straight. If I just remembered, “Well, Livia probably murdered them”, that usually ended up being right like ~66% of the time, but the rest of the time, ????
Oh well. I need to get this on proper audiobook! Or just proper book!
Listening to Derek Jacobi narrate this book is a delight, the man commits to a stutter like a true thespian.
It ended a little abruptly, and the characters are a little thin compared to something like Memoirs of Hadrian, but it's the classiest pulpy read I've experienced in a while.
The book was some fun saucy historical fiction, can't argue with that.
This is a long time re-read, having read it at the time of the BBC series. It is troublesome if you want to keep track of the vast array of characters mentioned by Claudius, but if, after a cursory look at the many genealogical trees on the web, you just abandon hope of making sense of all the details it is simply very instructive recreation of a fascinating historical period. What I do not know is if, Graves' interpretation has stood the test of time.
“... the next day, we lavished praise on Caligula as a sincere and pious ruler and voted annual sacrifices to his Clemency. What else could we do? He had the Army at his back, and power of life and death over us, and until someone was bold and clever enough to make a successful conspiracy against his life all that we could do was to humour him and hope for the best.”
Nothing changes.
The first 2/3rds I'd give four stars, but the last third, about Caligula, was great. More later.
Poisonings, stabbings, poisonings, orgies, fires, rapes, poisonings, and then Claudius becomes Emperor. Really good stuff!
A man chosen to lead his country who was way in over his head. All around him was corruption and and self-interest and flagrant wickedness. Not so Claudius, the quiet voice of reason in an insane world. Despite being the one person who continued to do the right thing and despite being in a position of power, Claudius was not a ruler at heart and it was his inability to act that gives this novel its poignancy.