Goodbye To All That

Many people that came of age in the early part of the 20th century found themselves disillusioned in the aftermath of World War I. Robert Graves echoed the sentiments of his generation in his 1929 autobiography, Goodbye To All That. From life in public school to the atrocities of WWI, Graves takes his readers on a compelling journey as he says goodbye to his youth.

Goodbye To All That: summary

Robert Graves' autobiography was originally published in 1929 and later revised in 1957. It is an example of the literature of 'The Lost Generation', who came into adulthood during WWI and became disillusioned by the destruction and needless deaths it caused.

The autobiography begins with Graves' school days at Charterhouse School in London, and goes on to his time as a soldier in France when Graves was only a teenager. The autobiography continues after the war, touching on his time spent in Wales, his student years at the University of Oxford, and finally his time in Egypt. While a soldier in France, Graves was wounded and had injured his lung. Graves suffered from PTSD for ten years.

Goodbye To All That looks at the atrocities that unfolded during WWI. It exposes some of the incompetency in leadership and the terrible conditions faced by soldiers. Dark humour appears throughout, particularly during the section dedicated to the war. This can be seen as a way for Graves to cope with the tragic events surrounding him. The book was written in a little over four months, when Robert Graves was 33.

Fig. 1 - Trench warfare during World War One, an important period in Graves' autobiography.

Goodbye To All That: meaning

The title Goodbye To All That can be interpreted as Graves saying goodbye to the war and the time of his youth. Other interpretations include that it is a eulogy to England, which changed dramatically after WWI. The war went a long way to ending England's period of imperialism. WWI weakened the old imperialist powers, enabling countries such as India to gain traction on their paths to independence.

There is a famous scene in the book where Graves is falsely proclaimed dead. This can be seen as a marker for Graves losing the innocence of his youth. Like many, he was forced to grow up quickly due to the war's devastation. Young men like him were thrust into leadership while they were still teenagers.

Purpose

At the time of the book's publication, Graves claimed that he had written the book so that he could raise the funds to leave England. He had written the book very quickly, in four months. It sold well on publication. He was true to his word, using the money to emigrate to Majorca, Spain.

Despite his comments, Graves' motives for writing the book seem more than just financial. As the title suggests, the book can be seen as a departure from both youth and England.

Goodbye To All That: Robert Graves

Robert Von Ranke Graves was born on 24 July 1895 in London. His father, Alfred Perceval Graves, was an Irish poet. His mother was Amalie Von Ranke, his father's second wife and daughter of a wealthy German family. Graves was a poet, novelist, and classicist, who enjoyed a prolific career. He wrote over 120 books in his lifetime. His most famous works include the historical novel I, Claudius (1934) and its sequels, and the autobiography Goodbye To All That. As a classicist, Graves wrote the book-length essay The White Goddess (1948).

He first started writing poetry while a student at Charterhouse. He removed the German 'Von Ranke' from his name after tensions rose with Germany before WWI. He joined the army after leaving Charterhouse at 17. Graves continued to write poetry during the war, like fellow poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. Sassoon and Graves both served in the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

In 1916, Graves was severely wounded by a shell burst that injured his lung. That, and the PTSD that followed, put a strain on his first marriage; they separated in the 1920s. In 1929, after publishing Goodbye To All That, Graves and American poet Laura Riding moved to Deia, Majorca.

I, Claudius and Claudius, the God (1934) followed Goodbye to All That. Both books were bestsellers and earned Graves critical success. In his poetry, he was considered a traditionalist rather than a modernist. He prized metre and clarity in his poems and often wrote on the subject of love.

In 1957 Graves had turned down a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for the first time (he was offered it again in 1984). In 1961, Graves became Professor of Poetry at Oxford, a position he held for five years. He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, losing out to John Steinbeck.

He died of heart failure on 7 December 1985, and was buried the next day in Deia.

Goodbye To All That: analysis

Goodbye To All That is an autobiography. It tells the life story of its author and is told in the first person, in past tense. The book can also be considered a poetic memoir. Rather than being taken as fact, it can be seen as Graves' account of his memory of the events included. The autobiography is an account of public school life, WWI, and the events that followed. The book's title can also be seen as its major theme, a departure from youth and 'Old England'.

Honesty

Another large theme of the book is honesty, both in the sense of Graves' honesty in depicting the war and society, and what is true in the book. Graves' account of the Battle of Loos exposed audiences to the incompetency of the higher echelons in the British Army. In contrast, Graves often praised the heroics of the Welsh mining class in his platoon. Graves was also honest when reflecting on the poetry of his contemporaries, Wilfrid Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. Graves claimed that while the pair's poetry was honest and unflinching, it still glorified the war.

Sassoon was a close friend of Graves at the time and was upset at parts of the autobiography. He disputed some of the accounts and was unhappy with the depiction of him and his family. Graves also included second-hand accounts of German prisoners of war being killed by British soldiers, which he himself did not witness. He did, however, claim that nearly every soldier had a story of it happening. This gives the impression that Graves' account can at times blur the lines between fact and rumour.

Goodbye To All That: quotes

Let us examine some quotes from the book, and what they can tell us.

He is describing his and Siegfried Sassoon's position on the war after the atrocities they had witnessed. Graves made clear his thoughts that WWI had left a younger generation suffering at the hands of an incompetent elite.