I, Claudius, Robert Graves
I, Claudius, Robert Graves
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I, Claudius

Author: Robert Graves

Narrator: Derek Jacobi, Full Cast, Tom Goodman-Hill

Unabridged: 5 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/06/2011

Synopsis

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Robert Graves' brilliant account of the madness and debauchery of ancient Rome, starring Tom Goodman Hill as Claudius and Derek Jacobi as Augustus. The wickedly entertaining inside story of the lives and deaths of the Imperial dynasty from Augustus to Caligula is told by their obscure relation, Claudius. In public, Claudius is a stammering, drooling weakling, whose reputation as an idiot keeps him safe from office and assassination. But in private, he's as sharp as they come, and keeps a secret history of everything he discovers. Until one day, as one of the few of his family left alive, he's acclaimed Emperor against his will. Can he save Rome from the corruption he's grown to detest? Featuring Derek Jacobi (who won a BAFTA for his performance as Claudius in the acclaimed 1977 BBC television production) as Augustus, and with an all-star cast, this gripping dramatisation will enthral anyone who loves the decadence of Ancient Rome.

About Robert Graves

Robert Graves (1895–1985) was an English poet, translator, and novelist, one of the leading English men of letters in the twentieth century. He fought in World War I and won international acclaim in 1929 with the publication of his memoir of the First World War, Good-bye to All That. After the war, he was granted a classical scholarship at Oxford and subsequently went to Egypt as the first professor of English at the University of Cairo. He is most noted for his series of novels about the Roman emperor Claudius and his works on mythology, such as The White Goddess.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Vit on September 23, 2024

I, Claudius is an autobiography of the emperor… And stuttering Claudius wrote very smoothly… It was written for the very distant posterity… Why has he written it? Because the Sibyl had told him: To a fawning fellowship He shall stammer, cluck and trip, Dribbling always with his lip. But when he’s dumb a......more

Goodreads review by Henry on August 04, 2020

Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus (Claudius to his embarrassed family), born in Lyon in what is now France, a sickly, lame, twitching, stutterer, a nonentity, thought an idiot by his relatives the most prominent in ancient Rome, Julius Caesar began their more than century long reign as the ru......more

Goodreads review by s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] on September 18, 2023

What is one to do when all around are the menaces of manipulation and murder? If you are Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, you keep your head down, stay out of the way, and write a scorching history about it. Such is the tale of Robert Grave’s classic I, Claudius, a book that was a major ins......more

Goodreads review by Kemper on March 15, 2011

Things had to have been boring in ancient Rome with no TV, internet or video games. But after reading I, Claudius, I think that the average Roman citizen’s chief entertainment probably came from watching what the imperial family did to each other. There was the crime and intrigue of a show like The......more

Goodreads review by Paul on February 07, 2012

I Claudius reviewed by Manny : - Claudius, come here, sit down right by me, don't be shy. - O o o o o oh, M-m-m-m-m- - Yes? - essalina! I Claudius reviewed by Mariel : All i can dream about is rabbits every day. every day rabbits. i can't tell you why. I Claudius reviewed by Ian Graye : You've seen The Sop......more

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