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An Ancient Castle
When, through the efforts of an unscrupulous war profiteer, his father is threatened with dismissal from his job as keeper of an ancient castle, a young boy helps thwart the conspiracy and discovers an unexpected treasure.
69 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
1 person is currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
Robert Graves
645 books2,089 followersRobert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. Born in Wimbledon, he received his early education at King's College School and Copthorne Prep School, Wimbledon & Charterhouse School and won a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford. While at Charterhouse in 1912, he fell in love with G.H. Johnstone, a boy of fourteen ("Dick" in Goodbye to All That) When challenged by the headmaster he defended himself by citing Plato, Greek poets, Michelangelo & Shakespeare, "who had felt as I did".
At the outbreak of WWI, Graves enlisted almost immediately, taking a commission in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He published his first volume of poems, Over the Brazier, in 1916. He developed an early reputation as a war poet and was one of the first to write realistic poems about his experience of front line conflict. In later years he omitted war poems from his collections, on the grounds that they were too obviously "part of the war poetry boom". At the Battle of the Somme he was so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was expected to die, and indeed was officially reported as 'died of wounds'. He gradually recovered. Apart from a brief spell back in France, he spent the rest of the war in England.
One of Graves's closest friends at this time was the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was also an officer in the RWF. In 1917 Sassoon tried to rebel against the war by making a public anti-war statement. Graves, who feared Sassoon could face a court martial, intervened with the military authorities and persuaded them that he was suffering from shell shock, and to treat him accordingly. Graves also suffered from shell shock, or neurasthenia as it is sometimes called, although he was never hospitalised for it.
Biographers document the story well. It is fictionalised in Pat Barker's novel Regeneration. The intensity of their early relationship is nowhere demonstrated more clearly than in Graves's collection Fairies & Fusiliers (1917), which contains a plethora of poems celebrating their friendship. Through Sassoon, he also became friends with Wilfred Owen, whose talent he recognised. Owen attended Graves's wedding to Nancy Nicholson in 1918, presenting him with, as Graves recalled, "a set of 12 Apostle spoons".
Following his marriage and the end of the war, Graves belatedly took up his place at St John's College, Oxford. He later attempted to make a living by running a small shop, but the business failed. In 1926 he took up a post at Cairo University, accompanied by his wife, their children and the poet Laura Riding. He returned to London briefly, where he split with his wife under highly emotional circumstances before leaving to live with Riding in Deià, Majorca. There they continued to publish letterpress books under the rubric of the Seizin Press, founded and edited the literary journal Epilogue, and wrote two successful academic books together: A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927) and A Pamphlet Against Anthologies (1928).
In 1927, he published Lawrence and the Arabs, a commercially successful biography of T.E. Lawrence. Good-bye to All That (1929, revised and republished in 1957) proved a success but cost him many of his friends, notably Sassoon. In 1934 he published his most commercially successful work, I, Claudius. Using classical sources he constructed a complexly compelling tale of the life of the Roman emperor Claudius, a tale extended in Claudius the God (1935). Another historical novel by Graves, Count Belisarius (1938), recounts the career of the Byzantine general Belisarius.
During the early 1970s Graves began to suffer from increasingly severe memory loss, and by his eightieth birthday in 1975 he had come to the end of his working life. By 1975 he had published more than 140 works. He survived for ten more years in an increasingly dependent condition until he died from heart
At the outbreak of WWI, Graves enlisted almost immediately, taking a commission in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He published his first volume of poems, Over the Brazier, in 1916. He developed an early reputation as a war poet and was one of the first to write realistic poems about his experience of front line conflict. In later years he omitted war poems from his collections, on the grounds that they were too obviously "part of the war poetry boom". At the Battle of the Somme he was so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was expected to die, and indeed was officially reported as 'died of wounds'. He gradually recovered. Apart from a brief spell back in France, he spent the rest of the war in England.
One of Graves's closest friends at this time was the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was also an officer in the RWF. In 1917 Sassoon tried to rebel against the war by making a public anti-war statement. Graves, who feared Sassoon could face a court martial, intervened with the military authorities and persuaded them that he was suffering from shell shock, and to treat him accordingly. Graves also suffered from shell shock, or neurasthenia as it is sometimes called, although he was never hospitalised for it.
Biographers document the story well. It is fictionalised in Pat Barker's novel Regeneration. The intensity of their early relationship is nowhere demonstrated more clearly than in Graves's collection Fairies & Fusiliers (1917), which contains a plethora of poems celebrating their friendship. Through Sassoon, he also became friends with Wilfred Owen, whose talent he recognised. Owen attended Graves's wedding to Nancy Nicholson in 1918, presenting him with, as Graves recalled, "a set of 12 Apostle spoons".
Following his marriage and the end of the war, Graves belatedly took up his place at St John's College, Oxford. He later attempted to make a living by running a small shop, but the business failed. In 1926 he took up a post at Cairo University, accompanied by his wife, their children and the poet Laura Riding. He returned to London briefly, where he split with his wife under highly emotional circumstances before leaving to live with Riding in Deià, Majorca. There they continued to publish letterpress books under the rubric of the Seizin Press, founded and edited the literary journal Epilogue, and wrote two successful academic books together: A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927) and A Pamphlet Against Anthologies (1928).
In 1927, he published Lawrence and the Arabs, a commercially successful biography of T.E. Lawrence. Good-bye to All That (1929, revised and republished in 1957) proved a success but cost him many of his friends, notably Sassoon. In 1934 he published his most commercially successful work, I, Claudius. Using classical sources he constructed a complexly compelling tale of the life of the Roman emperor Claudius, a tale extended in Claudius the God (1935). Another historical novel by Graves, Count Belisarius (1938), recounts the career of the Byzantine general Belisarius.
During the early 1970s Graves began to suffer from increasingly severe memory loss, and by his eightieth birthday in 1975 he had come to the end of his working life. By 1975 he had published more than 140 works. He survived for ten more years in an increasingly dependent condition until he died from heart
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 19, 2014
For the longest time I had been meaning to read his "Good-bye to All That" but couldn't get myself to do it because my profile here consistently screams that I am seriously lagging behind in my reading challenge. So I picked this one instead, a much thinner volume, written for children.
One learns a little something from each book no matter how dull both are (the reader and the book). Here I learned how Robert Graves explained to children the difference between warfare now and during the old days where combats were governed by the rules of the code of chivalry--
"Not to strike an enemy from behind when he was not looking; not to aim at the horse on which he was riding. so as to make it fall, but only at the enemy himself; not to use poison; not to hurt women or children or anyone who was not actually fighting; not to kill wounded men or sleeping men or men who had been knocked down and begged for mercy; not to be unkind to prisoners; not to tell lies; not to escape from a battle by throwing away arms and armour. If a knight behaved badly in any of these ways the other knights who heard of it would catch him and break his sword and take away his horse and lop off his spurs and cut his shield in two and call him a renegade and not have anything more to do with him. None of these rules of chivalry are kept in modern war; which is very curious...when one considers how well modern soldiers usually behave when not actually fighting. And nowadays a man who makes up lies about the enemy to put in the newspapers, or who invents a new poison-gas, or who drops aeroplane-bombs that kill women and children and old men and wounded people and sleeping people is quite likely to be made a knight as a reward, instead of being called a renegade and utterly disgraced."
August 26, 2020
Si bien Robert Graves es conocido por su faceta como divulgador de la cultura grecolatina y las famosas novelizaciones de la vida de personajes ilustres del mundo antiguo, disfruté bastante de este pequeño libro infantil que escribió en su juventud.
Con Un castillo antiguo(An Ancient Castle;1980) aprendí datos interesantes sobre las estructuras de los castillos y la trama del sargento Harington, su hijo y la amiguita de éste consiguió engancharme. Me hicieron sonreír las pequeñas notas de humor que añadió Graves mediante un malentendido con un fabricante de mermelada de dudosa calidad alimentaria...
Para pasar el rato es una agradable lectura.
Con Un castillo antiguo(An Ancient Castle;1980) aprendí datos interesantes sobre las estructuras de los castillos y la trama del sargento Harington, su hijo y la amiguita de éste consiguió engancharme. Me hicieron sonreír las pequeñas notas de humor que añadió Graves mediante un malentendido con un fabricante de mermelada de dudosa calidad alimentaria...
Para pasar el rato es una agradable lectura.
November 20, 2015
Robert Graves, First World War veteran and soldier poet, novelist, and translator, wrote this slim volume in the years between the two World Wars. For reasons not clear now, he put away the manuscript sometime in the early 1930s. William David Thomas outlines this work’s history in his afterword.
Approximately 40 years later, the manuscript surfaced again as a part of a collection of manuscripts and papers offered for sale by the author. They were purchased by a rare book dealer who offered the manuscript of “An Ancient Castle” to the University of Vancouver in British Columbia.
The book’s five chapters focus over their 66 pages upon the modern ruin of Lambuck Castle on the old Welsh-English frontier, its keeper and former soldier Sergeant Harrington, his young son Giles. Prominent supporting roles as the antagonists to our heroes go to Sir Anderson Wigg (jam magnate of the Great War) and his chauffer Mr. Slark (also a Great War veteran who spent most of his service behind the wheel of a staff car). Featured players include the Lord Lieutenant and his Deputy (responsible for overseeing the castle ruin among other duties) and Giles’ best friend and playmate, a younger girl named Bronwen.
The story is laced with Graves’ thoughts about his experiences of the Great War and his antipathy for war in general. The history of the castle as given also expands on the wars between the Welsh and the English centuries ago. While there is what might be called villainy afoot, it is a rather tame sort by the standards of our sadder modern times and it is rather easily dealt with by our heroes with the support of their friends and their experiences are capped by a surprising discovery.
As a children’s story, “An Ancient Castle” fits comfortably alongside other English children’s stories of the period whose intended audience would have been boys around age 12 or “the more adventurous girls” of about the same age as they might have put it in the period. Today that probably means that it is suitable for children of 9 or 10 or as a read to book for younger children. The sometimes amusing illustrations, by the author’s niece Elizabeth Graves, are likewise very much in the style of the period. I’m putting my copy in the stack of books I’ll be reading aloud someday!
Approximately 40 years later, the manuscript surfaced again as a part of a collection of manuscripts and papers offered for sale by the author. They were purchased by a rare book dealer who offered the manuscript of “An Ancient Castle” to the University of Vancouver in British Columbia.
The book’s five chapters focus over their 66 pages upon the modern ruin of Lambuck Castle on the old Welsh-English frontier, its keeper and former soldier Sergeant Harrington, his young son Giles. Prominent supporting roles as the antagonists to our heroes go to Sir Anderson Wigg (jam magnate of the Great War) and his chauffer Mr. Slark (also a Great War veteran who spent most of his service behind the wheel of a staff car). Featured players include the Lord Lieutenant and his Deputy (responsible for overseeing the castle ruin among other duties) and Giles’ best friend and playmate, a younger girl named Bronwen.
The story is laced with Graves’ thoughts about his experiences of the Great War and his antipathy for war in general. The history of the castle as given also expands on the wars between the Welsh and the English centuries ago. While there is what might be called villainy afoot, it is a rather tame sort by the standards of our sadder modern times and it is rather easily dealt with by our heroes with the support of their friends and their experiences are capped by a surprising discovery.
As a children’s story, “An Ancient Castle” fits comfortably alongside other English children’s stories of the period whose intended audience would have been boys around age 12 or “the more adventurous girls” of about the same age as they might have put it in the period. Today that probably means that it is suitable for children of 9 or 10 or as a read to book for younger children. The sometimes amusing illustrations, by the author’s niece Elizabeth Graves, are likewise very much in the style of the period. I’m putting my copy in the stack of books I’ll be reading aloud someday!
April 16, 2022
RESEÑA:
¡Regocijémonos, hermanos! Porque hoy toca hablar de un hombre que es el summum de la literatura histórica, cuya calidad es tan inconmensurable que caerás de hinojos ante él y lo adorarás como un dios: "Un castillo antiguo" (1980), de Robert Graves.
🏰🏰🏰
En el pueblo de Lambuck, en la frontera de Gales, se está gestando un complot contra el sargento Harington, el guardián del antiguo castillo. ¿Conseguirá nuestro protagonista salir de este entuerto? Lo averiguaremos.
🤯🤯🤯
Para algo tan humilde como es la literatura juvenil, Robert Graves desarrolla un mundo vivo y lleno de matices: la descripción del castillo, los personajes, los distintos aspectos de la vida de los habitantes del pueblo, los detalles históricos de hace más de trescientos años... de forma sencilla. Puedo ver este mundo, puedo olerlo, lo siento correr por mis venas.
😤😤😤
Y el mensaje que deja tras de sí es sencillamente de lo mejor: el odio hacia la guerra. A través del sargento Harington vemos cómo la guerra moderna se ha convertido en una carnicería donde antes había un mínimo de decencia, un código de honor. Pero aunque el autor anhela la vuelta de esos valores, deja muy claro que la guerra sigue siendo un horror:
💣💣💣
«La guerra es algo malvado y horrible sólo cuando la gente se comporta peor en la guerra que en la paz (...) En tiempos pasados los hombres se comportaban algo mejor (...) Pero naturalmente incluso las guerras de antaño resultan muy injustas.» [p.24]
💣💣💣
Esta obra merece ser leída, tanto por niños como por adultos. No tiene pérdida, y la vais a disfrutar mucho.
ROBERT GRAVES, "Un castillo antiguo" (1980)
Título original: "An ancient castle"
Traductor: Lucía Graves.
Ilustraciones: Elizabeth Graves
Ediciones Alfaguara S.A.
106 pp. 3'98€
CUENTA DE INSTAGRAM: @charlybooks
¡Regocijémonos, hermanos! Porque hoy toca hablar de un hombre que es el summum de la literatura histórica, cuya calidad es tan inconmensurable que caerás de hinojos ante él y lo adorarás como un dios: "Un castillo antiguo" (1980), de Robert Graves.
🏰🏰🏰
En el pueblo de Lambuck, en la frontera de Gales, se está gestando un complot contra el sargento Harington, el guardián del antiguo castillo. ¿Conseguirá nuestro protagonista salir de este entuerto? Lo averiguaremos.
🤯🤯🤯
Para algo tan humilde como es la literatura juvenil, Robert Graves desarrolla un mundo vivo y lleno de matices: la descripción del castillo, los personajes, los distintos aspectos de la vida de los habitantes del pueblo, los detalles históricos de hace más de trescientos años... de forma sencilla. Puedo ver este mundo, puedo olerlo, lo siento correr por mis venas.
😤😤😤
Y el mensaje que deja tras de sí es sencillamente de lo mejor: el odio hacia la guerra. A través del sargento Harington vemos cómo la guerra moderna se ha convertido en una carnicería donde antes había un mínimo de decencia, un código de honor. Pero aunque el autor anhela la vuelta de esos valores, deja muy claro que la guerra sigue siendo un horror:
💣💣💣
«La guerra es algo malvado y horrible sólo cuando la gente se comporta peor en la guerra que en la paz (...) En tiempos pasados los hombres se comportaban algo mejor (...) Pero naturalmente incluso las guerras de antaño resultan muy injustas.» [p.24]
💣💣💣
Esta obra merece ser leída, tanto por niños como por adultos. No tiene pérdida, y la vais a disfrutar mucho.
ROBERT GRAVES, "Un castillo antiguo" (1980)
Título original: "An ancient castle"
Traductor: Lucía Graves.
Ilustraciones: Elizabeth Graves
Ediciones Alfaguara S.A.
106 pp. 3'98€
CUENTA DE INSTAGRAM: @charlybooks
uncertain
June 4, 2024"An Ancient Castle, Robert Graves, Peter Owen, 0 7206 0567 9, £3.95.
Written in the thirties, this story for children recently surfaced from assorted Graves manuscripts. On one level it's a period piece reflecting Graves memories of the first world war — and army jam; on another it's a pleasantly matter-of-factly told tale of a boy and his father, keeper of a Welsh border castle, and the nasty doings of Sir Anderson Wigg (social upstart, man without honour who got his knighthood and made his fortune by manufacturing horrible jam for soldiers) and his equally unpleasant chauffeur, which threaten them. There's also a lot about castles and medieval warfare."
Books for Keeps, 5Nov1980
Written in the thirties, this story for children recently surfaced from assorted Graves manuscripts. On one level it's a period piece reflecting Graves memories of the first world war — and army jam; on another it's a pleasantly matter-of-factly told tale of a boy and his father, keeper of a Welsh border castle, and the nasty doings of Sir Anderson Wigg (social upstart, man without honour who got his knighthood and made his fortune by manufacturing horrible jam for soldiers) and his equally unpleasant chauffeur, which threaten them. There's also a lot about castles and medieval warfare."
Books for Keeps, 5Nov1980
December 29, 2018
Encantador cuento infantil con su dosis de moralina y olor a campiña inglesa que recuerda aquellos libros de Enid Blyton. Desconocía de Graves esta faceta de sus años mozos.
July 16, 2020
Un cuento infantil cortito pero muy hermoso y lleno de moralidad. Muy recomendable.
January 11, 2024
An enjoyable, political children's book
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews