I, Claudius [and] Claudius The God [and] Count Belasarius.

GRAVES, Robert (1895-1985).

London: Arthur Barker, 1934, 1934, 1938. [Historical Fiction] LEATHER-BOUND FIRST EDITIONS, First Impressions. Three volumes. Octavo (22 x 14 x 13cm), pp.494 [2]; pp.[2] 575 [2]; pp.528 [6]. With a folding family tree of the Julio-Claudian dynasty to rear of volumes one and two, maps to rear of volume three. Bound in dark blue half morocco, with raised bands, gilt titles and tooling to spine, matching cloth over boards, tan and red top stains. Internally clean, top edge colours a little sunned/toned, bindings unmarked. An attractive uniformly bound library set. I, Claudius is written as a first-person narrative of Roman history from Claudius' perspective, covering the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula; Claudius the God is written as a later addition documenting Claudius' own reign, and Count Belisarius chronicles the life of the Roman general Belisarius (AD 500–565).Arguably the defining piece of Roman historical fiction from the twentieth century, Graves' classic fanciful autobiography of Rome's fourth Emperor builds a tangled web of family feuds and internecine murder from hints provided by Tacitus and Suetonius. The story was dramatised by the BBC in 1976, starring Derek Jacobi, and has since inspired the tone of the acclaimed series 'Rome' (2005-07). Graves was a gifted classicist at Charterhouse and later Oxford, but decided to pursue literature and poetry after he completed his degree. As well as contributing translations of Apuleius' 'The Golden Ass' and Suetonius' 'Twelve Caesars' to the Penguin Classics collection, he also published a controversial encyclopaedia of Greek Myths containing some of his own original theories, generally rejected by the academic community. Item #76132

Price: £750.00