First published in 1929, Goodbye to All That is Robert Graves’s extraordinary account of a world shattered by the First World War—and of one man’s struggle to leave it behind.

From his childhood in Edwardian England and his education at Charterhouse to the blood-soaked trenches of the Western Front, Graves traces the making and unmaking of a generation. As a young officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, he witnesses the brutal reality of trench warfare, the arbitrary machinery of military life, and the devastating loss of friends and comrades. The ideals of duty, patriotism and honour that shaped his early years give way to disillusionment, trauma and an enduring sense of alienation.

Yet this is no conventional war memoir. With unsparing honesty, dark humour, and a remarkable eye for human absurdity, Graves captures both the horrors of combat and the strange, often surreal world that surrounds it. His recollections extend beyond the battlefield to the social conventions, institutional hypocrisies, and unquestioned beliefs of pre-war Britain, exposing a society whose certainties could not survive the conflict intact.

At once intimate and unsparing, Goodbye to All That is a portrait of a young man coming of age amid catastrophe—and of a writer attempting to make sense of experiences that defy easy explanation.

Brutally candid, darkly compelling, and profoundly human, Goodbye to All That remains one of the defining memoirs of the First World War—and an unforgettable testament to the cost of living through history.

Robert Graves (1895–1985) was a British poet, novelist, critic and classical scholar, renowned for his imaginative engagement with ancient history and mythology. Best known for I, Claudius and Claudius the God, he combined meticulous research with a distinctive literary voice, bringing the ancient world vividly to life.