Written in the form of Claudius’s autobiography, I, Claudius is the first part of Robert Graves’s brilliant account of the madness and debauchery of ancient Rome.
Despised for his weakness and regarded by his family as little more than a stammering fool, the nobleman Claudius quietly survives the bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the imperial Roman dynasties.
‘Still an acknowledged masterpiece and a model for historical fiction . . . sympathetic and intensely involving: a great feat of imagination.’ Hilary Mantel
‘One of the really remarkable books of our day, a novel of learning and imagination, fortunately conceived and brilliantly executed.’ New York Times
When in Rome . . .
The two books take the form of the intimate memoirs of Claudius himself, telling of his unlikely ascent to the imperial throne, and his surprisingly successful thirteen-year reign. Previously he had...
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