"Goodbye to all that" By Robert Graves.
In 1929, Robert Graves published his war novel "Goodbye to all that." It is
based on his own life experiences of the Great War. This autobiography has
been involved in "The great books controversy and changing attitudes towards
the war." But in 1931, two years after this Great War book was published,
Robert Graves wrote "P. S. Goodbye to all that." In this he justifies some
of his actions and why he wrote parts of the novel the way he did. He
confesses that he wrote the novel to make "a lump of money" he also included
the "ingredients" of a popular memoir, some of them including " people like
reading about food and drink.murders.ghosts.kings and other peoples
mothers." These ingredients make a good read in a novel and it 's the type of
things that people enjoy reading about. It also breaks up the novel and it
doesn 't concentrate on war so much. He also apologises to the people he
offended in the novel.
Autobiographies were a chronicle of someone 's life laid down for
posterity usually at the request of family members. "Goodbye to all that"
differs by virtue of his stated purpose in writing it. But throughout the
novel there are passages that defy a lot of what he said. An example of this
great writing is in chapter 15, which shows the very "matter of fact"
attitudes. "The other day.a bomb dropped next door and killed 3 soldiers who
were billeted there, a woman and a child." This probably did happen but it
was one of the many horrors of war which soldiers experienced day in and day
out. It became part of their lives; many lost hope and resorted to
committing suicide. Robert Graves clearly states that the first person he
saw dead and the last person he saw dead before he left the war were both
suicide victims. This just goes to show the kind of impact that the war had
on people 's lives. Graves talks about it as an everyday occurrence, which to
the soldiers at the front line it was. We know for a fact that the
fatalities and injuries were
based on his own life experiences of the Great War. This autobiography has
been involved in "The great books controversy and changing attitudes towards
the war." But in 1931, two years after this Great War book was published,
Robert Graves wrote "P. S. Goodbye to all that." In this he justifies some
of his actions and why he wrote parts of the novel the way he did. He
confesses that he wrote the novel to make "a lump of money" he also included
the "ingredients" of a popular memoir, some of them including " people like
reading about food and drink.murders.ghosts.kings and other peoples
mothers." These ingredients make a good read in a novel and it 's the type of
things that people enjoy reading about. It also breaks up the novel and it
doesn 't concentrate on war so much. He also apologises to the people he
offended in the novel.
Autobiographies were a chronicle of someone 's life laid down for
posterity usually at the request of family members. "Goodbye to all that"
differs by virtue of his stated purpose in writing it. But throughout the
novel there are passages that defy a lot of what he said. An example of this
great writing is in chapter 15, which shows the very "matter of fact"
attitudes. "The other day.a bomb dropped next door and killed 3 soldiers who
were billeted there, a woman and a child." This probably did happen but it
was one of the many horrors of war which soldiers experienced day in and day
out. It became part of their lives; many lost hope and resorted to
committing suicide. Robert Graves clearly states that the first person he
saw dead and the last person he saw dead before he left the war were both
suicide victims. This just goes to show the kind of impact that the war had
on people 's lives. Graves talks about it as an everyday occurrence, which to
the soldiers at the front line it was. We know for a fact that the
fatalities and injuries were
Bibliography: 1. "Goodbye to all that" Robert Graves 2. "The Great War in modern memory" Fussell 3. "Essay on Robert Graves novel" R.P Graves Total word count 2848