For Remembrance Day, I posted a Sensational Snippet on my blog:
https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/11/11/sensational-snippets-goodbye-to-all-that-192... ( )

Good-Bye to All That är en självbiografi av Robert Graves som dök upp första gången 1929, när författaren var 34 år gammal. "Det var mitt bittra avsked från England", skrev han i en prolog till den reviderade andra upplagan 1957, "där jag nyligen hade brutit mot en hel del konventioner". [1] Titeln kan också peka på övergången av en gammal ordning efter katastrofen under första världskriget ; patriotismens förmodade otillräcklighet, vissas intresse för ateism , feminism , socialism och pacifism, förändringarna i det traditionella äktenskapslivet, och inte minst uppkomsten av nya litterära uttryckssätt, behandlas alla i verket, som har direkt betydelse för Graves liv. Den osentimentala och ofta komiska behandlingen av banaliteterna och intensiteterna i livet för en brittisk arméofficer under första världskriget gav Graves berömmelse, [1] ryktbarhet och ekonomisk trygghet, [1] men bokens ämne är också hans familjehistoria, barndom , skolgång och, omedelbart efter kriget, tidigt äktenskapsliv; alla faser vittnar om det "särskilda sättet att leva och tänka" som utgör en poetisk sensibilitet. [1]

https://snowflakesinrain.wordpress.com/2010/10/27/robert-graves-farval-till-allt...

Mostly WW I memories with a bit of boarding school history in the beginning. His description of homosexuality at boarding school was surprising to me given how Alan Turing was treated after WW II. ( )

Good-Bye to All That by Robert Graves is a memoir about his formative years in England and his years at war. He had a somewhat privileged upbringing at various boarding schools, and the war interfered with his attending Oxford. Nevertheless, he served in WWI and provided many gruesome details of life in the trenches as he performed his duties. I was surprised at how little training soldiers received. However, I was not surprised at the loss of innocence due to the war and the need for people like Graves to leave his childhood behind and acknowledge the atrocities such as murder, rape, mutilation, and torture. By the way, Graves claims that the atrocities were equal on both sides.
Some of the book's messages that will remain with me are:

1. Respirators. Graves says, "the first respirator issued in France was a gauze-pad filled with chemically treated cotton waste, for tying across the mouth and nose. Reputedly it could not keep out the German gas…a week or two later came the 'smoke helmet,' a greasy gry-felt bag with a talc window to look through, but no mouthpiece, certainly ineffective against gas." (p. 95)

2. Two young miners disliked their sergeant and reported to their Adjutant: "'We've come to report, Sir, that we're very sorry, but we've shot our company sergeant-major.'
The Adjutant said, 'Good heavens, how did that happen?'
'It was an accident, Sir.'
'What do you mean, you damn fools? Did you mistake him for a spy?'
"No, Sir, we mistook him for our platoon sergeant.'"
They were both court-martialled and shot by a firing squad of their own company. (p.109)

3. Graves was treated with reserve since he had a German name and was suspected of being a spy. Incredible!

4. Local French peasants didn't care whether the soldiers were on the German or British side of the line. They had no use for foreign soldiers. Wow!

5. Self-medication with alcohol and drugs was common—probably a survival mechanism.

6. Prose and poetry were critical during wartime and afterward. ( )

Not the best memoir I've read, but not a bad one either. I really don't know too much about World War I, so that's possibly why some of this book didn't interest me, however, picked this book to read something out of my comfort zone. I like Robert Graves as a writer. Some of the stuff Graves saw during the war I'm not sure how I'd handle it mentally. ( )