The emperor Claudius tells of his life during the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula and the events that led to his rise to power in a classic novel reconstructing ancient Rome.
The subject of this renowned historical novel is the emperor Tiberius Claudius. Claudius has, essentially, seen it all between the years 44 B.C. and 54 A.D. Growing up in the house of Augustus, Claudius has a limp and a stammer, and is thought to be mentally deficient. In Graves's hands, Claudius's defects are precisely what enable him to survive the intrigue, murder, betrayal, and backstabbing of the members of the courts of Augustus, the vicious Tiberius, and the crazed and decadent Caligula. The novel was made into a BBC miniseries and broadcast to much acclaim in the U.S. as well. It was also the winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Hawthornden Prize in 1935.
- Genre: Fiction + Literature Themes, Fiction + Literature Genres
- Subgenre: Peoples + Cultures, Psychology, Politics, Legal + Courtroom + Crime, Conflicts + Dualities, General, Hobbies + Activities, Human Qualities + Behavior, Literary Genres + Types of Novels, Medicine + Health
- Publisher: Csa Word
- Edition: Abridged
- Language: English
- Format: audioCD
- Release Date: August 1, 2008
- Date Published: August 1, 2008
- Author: Robert Graves
- Narrator: Derek Jacobi (Narrator)