Robert Graves

Robert Graves was born on July 24, 1895 in Wimbledon. His father, Alfred Perceval Graves was a minor Irish poet and a Gaelic scholar. His mother was Amalie von Ranke and she was closely related to Leopold von Ranke; one of the founder fathers of the recent and modern historical studies.

The best place to start is the Claudius series, the earliest of Robert Graves's multi-book series: it opens with I, Claudius (1934) and runs to 2 books across 1934, ending with Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina (1934). Robert Graves's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Robert Graves has 171 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1924 and 2023. 101 of them belong to 3 named series — the largest being the Claudius series with 2 books — and 70 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Robert Graves's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Claudius (1934, 2 books) and Sergeant Lamb (1940–1941, 2 books).

This guide splits Robert Graves's 171 books into 3 named series and 70 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Claudius (2 books, 1934); Sergeant Lamb (2 books, 1940–1941); Literary Conversations (97 books, 1969–2023).