This volume brings together all three of Robert Graves's most significant prose writings on the meaning of the Great War: the original 1929 edition of Good-bye to All That, the essay 'A Postscript to Good-bye to All That' (1930), and the play But It Still Goes On (1930). These last two works, which have been long out of print, provide an invaluable context for Graves's classic autobiography. The 'Postscript', Graves's reflections on the nature of personal literature written about the Great War, is a fascinating complement to Good-bye to All That, illuminating Graves's own stance in his war memoir. But It Still Goes On, a play too controversial to be staged in the 1930s, explores the cultural and emotional wasteland of postwar England. Steven Trout's detailed introduction places all three works within their cultural and biographical context and, in particular, explores the complexities of the truth claims and dark humour in Graves's account of his experiences on the Western Front.

This is the only edition of Graves's work to present the original 1929 text of Good-bye to All That alongside 'A Postscript' and But It Still Goes On, making available crucial texts for any Graves scholar or student of First World War literature.

Introduction by Steven Trout ix

Works Cited xxxii



GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT

Chapter I 1

Chapter II 12

Chapter III 19

Chapter IV 23

Chapter V 28

Chapter VI 33

Chapter VII 37

Chapter VIII 42

Chapter IX 52

Chapter X 57

Chapter XI 68

Chapter XII 74

Chapter XIII 85

Chapter XIV 94

Chapter XV 109

Chapter XVI 127

Chapter XVII 138

Chapter XVIII 146

Chapter XIX 152

Chapter XX 157

Chapter XXI 170

Chapter XXII 179

Chapter XXIII 185

Chapter XXIV 192

Chapter XXV 201

Chapter XXVI 211

Chapter XXVII 220

Chapter XXVIII 228

Chapter XXIX 238

Chapter XXX 247

Chapter XXXI 253

Chapter XXXII 260

Dedicatory Epilogue to Laura Riding 273

POSTSCRIPT TO GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT

BUT IT STILL GOES ON: A PLAY IN THREE ACTS

Act I 307

Act II 332

Act III 354

List of Illustrations to Good-bye to All That

Robert Graves,1929 xxxiv

Cuinchy brick-stacks seen from a British trench on the Givenchy canal-bank. The white placarded brick-stack is in the British support line; the ones beyond are held by the Germans. The village of Auchy is seen in the distance.

Trench map showing the Cambrin–Cuinchy–Vermelles trench sector in the summer of 1915. Each square-side measures 500 yards and is ticked off into 50-yard units. Only the German trench-system is shown in detail; a broken pencil-line marks the approximate course of the British front trench. The mine-craters appear as stars in No Man’s Land. The brick-stacks in the German line appear as minute squares; those held by the British are not marked. The intended line of advance of the 19th Brigade on September 25th is shown in pencil on this map, which is the one that I carried on that day.

Maps

Somme Trench Map – TheFricourt Sector, 1916. This map fits against the map on page 159
Somme Trench Map – MametzWood and High Wood, 1916. This map fits against the map on page 149

Robert Graves, from a pastel by Eric Kennington.

Various Records, mostly self-explanatory. The Court of Enquiry mentioned in the bottom left-hand message was to decide whether the wound of a man in the Public Schools Battalion – a rifle shot through his foot – was self-inflicted or accidental. It was self-inflicted. B. Echelon meant the part of the battalion not in the trenches. Idol was the code-name for the Second Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. The notebook leaf is the end of my 1915 diary only three weeks after I began it; I used my letters home as a diary after that. The message about Sergeant Varcoe was from Captain Samsom shortly before his death; I was temporarily attached to his company.

1929, The Second Battalion the Royal Welch Fusiliers back to pre-war soldiering. The regimental Royal goat, the regimental goat-major and the regimental pioneers (wearing white leather aprons and gauntlets – a special regimental privilege) on church parade at Wiesbaden on the Rhine. The band follows, regimentally. The goat has a regimental number and draws rations like a private soldier, ‘some speak of Alexander, and some of Hercules…’