Good-Bye to All That by Robert Graves

Good-bye to All That is the autobiography of Robert Graves. First published in 1929, the work is a landmark anti-war memoir of life in the trenches during World War I. The title expresses Graves' disillusionment in the existence of traditional, stable values in European and English society. Graves first wrote the work in his thirties, when he had a long and eventful life ahead of him, and the book deals mainly with his childhood, youth and military service. He devotes a large part of the book to his experiences of the First World War, where he gives a detailed description of trench warfare, including the tragic incompetence of the Battle of Loos. Many readers will be interested in his secondhand description of the killing of German prisoners of war by British, Canadian and Australian troops. Although he had not witnessed any incidents himself and knew of no large-scale massacres, he knew of a number of incidents where prisoners had been killed individually or in small groups, and he believed that a large proportion of Germans who surrendered never made it to prisoner-of-war camps. Graves was severely traumatized by his war experience. After he was wounded, he endured a five day train journey amid squalor and unchanged bandages. The trench telephone scared him such that he never lived with the technology for the rest of his life (he received an electric shock because the line was struck by lightning). Upon his return home, he describes being haunted by ghosts and nightmares. Laura Riding, Graves' lover, is credited with being a "spiritual and intellectual midwife" to the work, which made him famous. Graves heavily revised his book and re-published it in 1957 with many significant events and figures either excised or added.

The 147th greatest nonfiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - 41st on The Modern Library | 100 Best Nonfiction (The Modern Library)
  2. - 110 Best Books: The Perfect Library (The Telegraph)
  3. - 100 Major Works of Modern Creative Nonfiction (About.com)
  4. - The 100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time (The Guardian)

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Name Binding Sales Rank Lowest New Lowest Used Published
Good-Bye to All That Hardcover 10845090 $1,081.43
Good-bye to all that (Doubleday anchor books, A123) Mass Market Paperback 1330598 $4.34
Good-Bye to All That: An Autobiography Hardcover 2171730 $245.31 $69.28
Good-Bye to All That: An Autobiography Mass Market Paperback 2540324 $9.96
Good-Bye to All That Hardcover 4309887 $3.18
Good-bye to all that;: An autobiography, Hardcover 4661693 $99.00
Goodbye to All That Paperback 6076224 $5.00 1960
Good-Bye to All That Hardcover 12182155 $19.99
Good-bye to All That An Autobiography Hardcover 6082269 $29.98
Good-bye to All That Hardcover 7860190 $78.40
GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT. An Autobiography. Hardcover 9060293 $16.81
Goodbye to All That (Penguin Modern Classics) Paperback 577301 $9.33 $6.83 2000
GOODBYE TO ALL THAT (PENGUIN MODERN CLASSICS) Paperback 3582660 $1.66
Goodbye to All That Hardcover 1649539 $10.12 $10.65 2013
Goodbye to All That Hardcover 775295 $3.83
Goodbye to All That Hardcover 4054605 $124.73 $10.56 1997
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Goodbye To All That (A CSA Word Classic) Audio CD 3051857 $29.95 $21.54 2009
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Goodbye To All That Paperback 2144843 $22.08
Goodbye To All That Paperback 8034517 $6.17
Good-bye to All That and Other Great War Writings Hardcover 6632571 $713.99 2008
Goodbye to all that Hardcover 1363424 $18.68 $21.60 2018
Goodbye to All That Hardcover 2824823 $10.00
Goodbye To All That Paperback 7475502 $3.98
Goodbye To All That Audio CD 4698991 $12.32 $9.06 2007
Goodbye to All That Paperback 4992834 $270.67 $3.99 1999
Modern Classics Goodbye To All That: The Original Edition (Penguin Modern Classics) Mass Market Paperback 365457 $6.76 $5.81 2014
Good-bye to All That (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series) Hardcover 1055564 $17.62 2018
GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT. Hardcover 3673025 $22.40
Good-bye to All That, an Autobiography By Robert Graves, Revised Second Edition Mass Market Paperback 1019185 $2.75
Good-Bye to All That : An Autobiography Paperback 2983315 $0.01
Notes on "Goodbye to All That" (York Notes) Paperback 2871044 $6.19 1984
Good-bye to All That Paperback 3831769 $14.65 $14.00
Penguin Essentials Goodbye To All That Mass Market Paperback 3928596 $5.61 $4.41 2011
Good-Bye to All That Paperback 1302252 $30.04 $5.00 1995
Good-Bye to All That Hardcover 1502349 $44.00
Good-Bye to All That: An Autobiography Paperback 162328 $7.98 $1.40 1958