Goodbye to All That

Goodbye to All That

Goodbye to All That

By Robert Graves (2000)
Buy this book
Buy this book

An autobiographical work that describes firsthand the great tectonic shifts in English society following the First World War, Robert Graves's Goodbye to All That is a matchless evocation of the Great War's haunting legacy, published in Penguin Modern Classics.

In 1929 Robert Graves went to live abroad permanently, vowing 'never to make England my home again'. This is his superb account of his life up until that 'bitter leave-taking': from his childhood and desperately unhappy school days at Charterhouse, to his time serving as a young officer in the First World War that was to haunt him throughout his life. It also contains memorable encounters with fellow writers and poets, including Siegfried Sassoon and Thomas Hardy, and covers his increasingly unhappy marriage to Nancy Nicholson. Goodbye to All That, with its vivid, harrowing descriptions of the Western Front, is a classic war document, and also has immense value as one of the most candid self-portraits of an artist ever written.

Fact of the Day

Living in the Dakota building, John Lennon and Yoko Ono apparently employed a man 'whose sole job was to polish the apartment's brass doorknobs' .

Quote of the Day

"The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children. "
~ Edward VIII/Duke of Windsor

On This Day

1284 The future Edward II was born at Caernarfon Castle, Wales. He was the only son from Edward I's first marriage to Eleanor of Castile to outlive his father.
1719 The much-loved Daniel Defoe story Robinson Crusoe was published.
1792 French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person to be executed by the guillotine.
1915 Ninety thousand Australian, New Zealand, British and French forces began landing on the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula. They hoped to secure the northern bank of the Dardanelles, but were forced to withdraw after eight months of intense fighting.
1916 British authorities declared martial law in Dublin for a month, in response to the Easter Rising.
1984 David A. Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy (of the political Kennedy family), died of a drug overdose in Palm Beach, aged 28.
1990 The US shuttle Discovery released the Hubble Telescope into orbit. It remains one of the largest, most versatile and best known space telescopes.