Plot Summary (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes
Plot Summary
Introduction to the autobiography
Good-Bye to All That is an autobiography written by Robert Graves, first published in 1929 when the author was 34 years old. The work was later revised and reissued in 1957. Graves described the book as his bitter farewell to England, noting that he had recently broken many conventions. The title itself suggests a farewell not just to England but to an entire old order that collapsed following the catastrophic events of the First World War.
The autobiography covers several phases of Graves's life, including his family history, childhood, education, and his experiences during and immediately after the war. Throughout the work, Graves provides an unsentimental and often darkly comic account of life as a British army officer during WWI. The book's primary focus is on his wartime experiences, but it also explores his early married life after the conflict ended. Graves wrote the memoir to convey the particular way of living and thinking that shaped his poetic sensibility.
Interestingly, the book brought Graves both fame and financial security, though this success came with consequences. His honest and sometimes controversial accounts of the war and British society created friction with some of his contemporaries.
Pre-war life
Before the war, Graves was an enthusiastic climber. He stated that the sport made all other activities seem trivial by comparison. His first significant climb was Crib y Ddysgl, which he later followed with climbs on Crib Goch and Y Lliwedd. These mountaineering experiences formed part of his character development and physical preparation before the war transformed his life completely.
Graves also recounts his experiences at English preparatory and public schools. He makes controversial observations about the nature of romantic relationships in these institutions, noting the segregated environment and its effects on young men. He claimed that many boys never fully recovered from these experiences, though he himself described being more honourably chaste and sentimental than most.
Wartime experiences
Service in the Royal Welch Fusiliers
A substantial portion of the autobiography is devoted to Graves's experiences during the First World War. He served first as a lieutenant and later as a captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, fighting alongside the war poet Siegfried Sassoon. The book provides detailed and vivid descriptions of trench warfare, bringing to life the brutal realities of combat on the Western Front.
Graves does not shy away from depicting the horrific conditions soldiers endured. He describes trench warfare in graphic detail, including the tragic incompetence displayed during the Battle of Loos, where gas was used with devastating effect. The narrative also covers the bitter fighting during the first phase of the Somme Offensive, one of the bloodiest battles in human history.
The reality of death and survival
Graves presents shocking statistics about mortality rates among young officers. He claimed that at least one in three of his generation from school died in the conflict. Most took commissions as quickly as possible, primarily in the infantry and Royal Flying Corps. The average life expectancy of an infantry subaltern on the Western Front was approximately three months at certain stages of the war. By that time, a young officer would typically have been either wounded or killed.
Trench conditions
The conditions in the trenches were appalling. Graves describes the presence of Cuinchy-bred rats, which came up from the canal and fed on the abundant corpses. These rats multiplied at an alarming rate, becoming a constant presence in the soldiers' daily lives. Such details convey the degrading and dehumanising environment in which soldiers fought.
Wounds sustained in battle
On 20 July 1916, during the Somme engagement, Graves was severely wounded whilst leading his men through the cemetery at Bazentin-le-petit church. The wound initially appeared so serious that military authorities erroneously reported to his family that he had died. His family even received official notification of his death, and an announcement was published in newspapers mourning his loss.
In reality, Graves survived thanks to the actions of a soldier named Owen Roberts, who rescued him from the battlefield. Graves later regretted not including Roberts's name in the original book. Fifty years after the incident, the two men met again in a hospital ward where both had been admitted for surgery. During this reunion, Graves signed Roberts's copy of the book, giving him full credit for saving his life and acknowledging the debt he owed.
Discussion of wartime atrocities
Graves addresses the controversial topic of atrocities committed during the war with unusual frankness. He notes that among his fellow troops, Allied atrocity propaganda - such as reports of the rape of Belgium - was widely disbelieved. In the book, Graves defines atrocities specifically as wartime sexual violence, mutilation and torture, rather than summary executions.
Propaganda versus reality
Graves argues that much of what was reported as German atrocities was actually Allied propaganda. He observed that if the definition of atrocities were expanded to include the accidental-on-purpose bombing or machine-gunning of civilians from the air, the Allies were committing as many atrocities as the Germans. When he encountered French and Belgian civilians showing British soldiers body parts allegedly mutilated by German troops, he suggested these were more likely the result of indiscriminate shelling rather than deliberate torture.
Weapons and war crimes
Both sides used weapons that the other considered atrocious. The German use of serrated knives and the British deployment of expanding bullets were each regarded as atrocious by the opposing side. However, Graves claimed that opportunities for soldiers to commit what he called true atrocities only occurred when escorting prisoners of war to the rear lines.
Treatment of prisoners
According to Graves, nearly every instructor in the mess could cite specific instances of prisoners being murdered whilst being escorted back from the front. The motivations varied: revenge for the death of friends or relatives, jealousy that the prisoner would be sent to a comfortable prison camp in England whilst they remained in danger, military enthusiasm, fear of being suddenly overpowered by prisoners, or simply impatience with the escorting duty.
Graves notes that if a German patrol found a wounded man, they were likely to cut his throat. However, if prisoners of war arrived at their destination, they were treated well during interrogations.
Colonial troops and atrocities
Graves reported that Australian and Canadian troops had the worst reputation for committing atrocities against German prisoners of war. He recounted two first-hand accounts from a Scottish-Canadian soldier and an Australian, who told him how they murdered German prisoners whilst escorting them using Mills bombs. Canadian soldiers were apparently motivated to commit such acts by the story of The Crucified Soldier, which Graves and his fellow soldiers refused to believe.
Graves also added that the use of semi-civilised coloured troops in Europe was, from the German perspective, one of the chief Allied atrocities, and he acknowledged that they sympathised with this view.
Postwar trauma and psychological damage
The war left Graves severely traumatised. After being wounded in the lung by a shell blast, he endured a horrific five-day train journey with his bandages unchanged. During his initial military training in England, he had received an electric shock from a telephone that had been struck by lightning. This incident caused him to stammer and sweat badly whenever he had to use a telephone for the next twelve years.
Symptoms of neurasthenia
Upon returning home, Graves was haunted by ghosts and nightmares that plagued his sleep. According to his own account, his particular disability was neurasthenia - what we might today recognise as post-traumatic stress disorder or shell shock. He described how shells used to come bursting on his bed at midnight, and how strangers in daytime would suddenly assume the faces of friends who had been killed in the war.
Changed attitude to risk
The trauma fundamentally altered Graves's personality and behaviour. When offered a chance to rejoin George Mallory (the famous mountaineer) in climbing, Graves declined, stating that he could never again deliberately take chances with his life. The war had stripped away any romantic notions about danger and adventure, replacing them with a deep-seated need for safety and stability.
Critical responses and legacy
The autobiography generated mixed reactions from Graves's contemporaries and fellow soldiers. Siegfried Sassoon and his friend Edmund Blunden, who had served in a different regiment during the war, took umbrage at certain contents of the book. Sassoon's complaints mostly related to Graves's depiction of him and his family. Blunden, meanwhile, had read the memoirs of J.C. Dunn and found them at odds with Graves's account in some places.
The two men obtained Blunden's copy of the book and made marginal notes contradicting some of the text. This annotated copy survives and is held by the New York Public Library. Graves's father, Alfred Perceval Graves, was also displeased with some aspects of the book and wrote a response entitled To Return to All That.
Despite these criticisms, the book achieved significant literary recognition. It was later included in Robert McCrum's Guide to the 100 Greatest Nonfiction Books in English, published by The Guardian, cementing its status as an important work of war literature and autobiography.
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
- Good-Bye to All That is Robert Graves's autobiography focusing primarily on his WWI experiences, first published in 1929 and revised in 1957
- The book provides unflinching descriptions of trench warfare, including the Battle of Loos and Somme Offensive, where Graves served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers
- Graves was severely wounded in July 1916 and initially reported dead; he was saved by Owen Roberts, whom he later thanked fifty years later
- The autobiography frankly discusses wartime atrocities committed by all sides and challenges Allied propaganda about German war crimes
- Graves suffered severe postwar trauma (neurasthenia) including nightmares, telephone phobia, and an inability to take risks with his life, fundamentally changing his personality