A review by heyincendiary
I, Claudius by Robert Graves

5.0

About as good as historical fiction gets. Out of Claudius, the third formal emperor of Rome, who grew up being thought mentally deficient by his ambitious family until he outlived them all, Graves tells the story of the development and corruption of the early Empire by the selfish, conniving, lustful as Claudius comments wryly on their misdeeds. Like another masterpiece of historical fiction - Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (planned) trilogy - it takes the murders and adulteries of long-ago royalty, which should be able to quicken the pulse and so rarely do, and injects some life and wit into them.