Goodbye to All That
Robert Graves's bitter, blackly comic memoir of his upbringing and his service as an infantry officer on the Western Front.
The Verdict
Robert Graves wrote this in a few weeks, partly for the money, then spent decades half-disowning it — yet it remains one of the indispensable English books of the war. A bitter, blackly funny settling of accounts, it carries him from a stifling Edwardian boyhood through the Western Front, where he was so badly wounded he was reported dead, to a postwar England he could no longer stomach. The title is the whole argument: a farewell to a country, a class, and a world the war had rendered impossible.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- A caustic, funny memoir of the Western Front
- The war as part of a wider break with England
- The disillusioned officer's voice
- One of the defining English accounts
Look elsewhere if you want
- A reliable, documentary record (Graves embellished)
- Strategy or the course of the war
- An earnest or solemn tone
Why We Rated It 4.6
Historical Context
Goodbye to All That (1929) covers Graves's childhood, his service with the Royal Welch Fusiliers on the Western Front, and his disenchanted postwar life before he left England for good. Graves substantially revised it in 1957, and the two versions differ in places.
Criticisms & Debates
Graves cheerfully admitted shaping the truth for impact, and contemporaries — including his friend Sassoon and Edmund Blunden, who annotated a copy with corrections — disputed details. Read it for its voice and its larger truth about the war's effect, not as a factual ledger.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Collector's Corner
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0385093309
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Other Books About the Same Events
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Goodbye to All That accurate?
- Broadly truthful about the experience, but Graves admitted embellishing for effect and friends disputed specifics — treat it as memoir, not documentary.
- What is the difference between the 1929 and 1957 editions?
- Graves reworked the book substantially in 1957; the original 1929 text is sharper and differs in detail.