Total soap operas. Awesome.

I love this book so far. And I'm halfway through it after having to return it to the library on two separate occasions due to running out of time. I'm not sure why I haven't just 'buckled down' and read it already. It's really surprisingly good. It's just not the kind of book you can read on the treadmill at the gym. It's more of a Saturday morning taking-it-easy kind of read. Speaking of which... why am I on goodreads wasting time when I could be reading said book? Hmm.

An impressive fictional biography. I think the modern reader would like more insight into Claudius' mind, we don't get much reflection in all of that history. But the intrigue is in the plotting, the cruelty, the (as other reviewers have pointed out) the endless poisonings, and the many tragic heroes left by the wayside of Rome's bloody history.

It probably is a very good book, and I am the wrong person reading it in the wrong century. I can see how, if you had been raised on solemn and venerating histories of the Roman Empire (which you then thought about all the time), this gossipy account of the inner schemings of the court, and its unlikely but likable hero, would have been a breath of fresh air.

“... the next day, we lavished praise on Caligula as a sincere and pious ruler and voted annual sacrifices to his Clemency. What else could we do? He had the Army at his back, and power of life and death over us, and until someone was bold and clever enough to make a successful conspiracy against his life all that we could do was to humour him and hope for the best.”

Nothing changes.

It's more 3.5 stars than it is 4, but since that is not an option, I will round up.

I saw a blurb somewhere that says that I, Claudius is the best historical fiction ever written, and that may have been true up to the time of its publication, but for me, the Wolf Hall series is the benchmark against which all others should be measured.

Graves is pretty sneaky in that when you finish with this novel, you're almost compelled to read the sequel.

Other than the narrator (Claudius) and one or two others, Graves's characters are too many to spend much time fleshing them out. I did feel as if the novel helped me get straightened out many historical Romans who I knew little about, and also made me more aware of the political "system," the economic system, the social customs, the various wars, and the popular culture of the day.

The question remains, however, whether Claudius is a reliable narrator.

Romans had different ideas about family and politics than modern people. For example, in this historical novel, I lost track of how many of the main and secondary characters had been taken out by poisoning, bludgeoning, or neglect. Mothers kill their daughters by walling them up in a room and listening to them starve to death, grandmothers gradually poisoning grandsons, and emperors get their jaws hacked off by assassins. Rank, kinship or success didn't seem to protect Romans from an inevitable and unnatural death. Riveting.

3.5, a very pleasant read!

Really enjoyed this one. A harrowing, unforgettable, and vastly entertaining insiders' guide to the lives of the heirs of the House of Caesar. Highly informative, great characters, never a dull moment—and you can see how it paved the way for other classic novelists of historical fiction, including Mary Renault and Gore Vidal.

Plenty of contemporary echoes, too, especially in Graves' indelible portrait of Caligula, a physical coward who loved pomp and military parades, a vain, cruel ruler wholly lacking in empathy, who surrounded himself with cowering yes-men and liked to play them against each another. A man who believed himself a literal god but also feared madness—and was mad. If you've ever thought about reading this one—and even if you've already seen the famous PBS series—do it. You won't regret it!