What do you think?
Rate this book
Seven Days in New Crete
Like the three monkeys, the New Cretans see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil. When Edward Venn-Thomas wakes up to find himself in their midst he realizes that much has happened since the mid-20th century from which he has been whisked. His hosts live in peace and prosperity in a society which knows no hunger and no dissatisfaction, where war has become a game played on village greens, where the poets and magicians of a strange occult religion keep all classes of the population happy with their lot.
But idyllic though their civilization may be, it is insipid and boring, a Utopia utterly lacking in danger, excitement or spice. And as Venn-Thomas begins to understand the bewildering adventures which befall him, he realizes that he has been chosen by The Goddess to inject New Crete with disruption and misery, to create disaster and chaos, to reintroduce the New Cretans to a force they have forgotten about - evil. In short, to teach them to live again.
[Taken from the back cover]
But idyllic though their civilization may be, it is insipid and boring, a Utopia utterly lacking in danger, excitement or spice. And as Venn-Thomas begins to understand the bewildering adventures which befall him, he realizes that he has been chosen by The Goddess to inject New Crete with disruption and misery, to create disaster and chaos, to reintroduce the New Cretans to a force they have forgotten about - evil. In short, to teach them to live again.
[Taken from the back cover]
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
17 people are currently reading
582 people want to read
About the author
Robert Graves
481books1,938followersRobert von Ranke Graves (1895-1985), born in Wimbledon, 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 failure.
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 failure.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
Read
November 19, 2019Obscure, long out-of-print, minor novel. Really enjoyed it. Who knew Graves had a sense of humor? He pokes quite a bit of fun at academics, himself included. The only reason the book was the least bit intelligible to me is because I know Graves' peculiar and complex take on Greek mythology and European pre-Christian religion. One erudite reviewer on GoodReads began his 1 star critique with "This is a profoundly stupid book." That made me laugh as much as the book did. Because the man is right. If you read the story from a modern POV, it is incomprehensible.
June 16, 2023
Un aburrimiento. Al descubrir que el famoso autor de tenía una novela de ciencia-ficción me puse en marcha para buscarlo de segunda mano, cosa que me costó bastante.
Al grano, la novela es una mezcla de utopía en la que el autor que es un enamorado de la época clásica imagina un futuro en que se ha vuelto a un tipo de vida similar al de la antigua Grecia con un poco de anarquía, comunismo y feminismo. A ese futuro hacen viajar a un inglés de nuestra época para poder estudiar el idioma inglés que ya no existe, ya que en ese futura la gente habla en "ٲá".
Todo esto que a priori parece muy interesante se convierte en una serie de disquisiciones e historias de amor que no termino de entender ya que parece tratar de venderte una libertad sexual de las mujeres del futuro. Me he aburrido y lo he terminado por mi manía de si empiezo un libro y paso cierto umbral ya no lo puedo dejar a medias.
No voy a decir que sea malo ya que hay ciertas cosas que te hacen pensar como en otras utopías que he leído antes. ¿Es posible el mal en una sociedad totalmente permisiva? ¿Es posible al envidia en una sociedad que comparte todo y vive en la abundancia? Le daré 2 estrellas ** y creo que es una lectura que solo puede interesar a seguidores del autor o alguien que quiera estudiar ideas de Utopías que se hayan incluido en novelas de Ciencia-Ficción.
Al grano, la novela es una mezcla de utopía en la que el autor que es un enamorado de la época clásica imagina un futuro en que se ha vuelto a un tipo de vida similar al de la antigua Grecia con un poco de anarquía, comunismo y feminismo. A ese futuro hacen viajar a un inglés de nuestra época para poder estudiar el idioma inglés que ya no existe, ya que en ese futura la gente habla en "ٲá".
Todo esto que a priori parece muy interesante se convierte en una serie de disquisiciones e historias de amor que no termino de entender ya que parece tratar de venderte una libertad sexual de las mujeres del futuro. Me he aburrido y lo he terminado por mi manía de si empiezo un libro y paso cierto umbral ya no lo puedo dejar a medias.
No voy a decir que sea malo ya que hay ciertas cosas que te hacen pensar como en otras utopías que he leído antes. ¿Es posible el mal en una sociedad totalmente permisiva? ¿Es posible al envidia en una sociedad que comparte todo y vive en la abundancia? Le daré 2 estrellas ** y creo que es una lectura que solo puede interesar a seguidores del autor o alguien que quiera estudiar ideas de Utopías que se hayan incluido en novelas de Ciencia-Ficción.
March 6, 2016
This is a profoundly stupid book. The problem, that is, the thing that makes it so stupid, is that Robert Graves, as will be well known to anyone who has ploughed their way through 'The White Goddess' or any of his other extraordinary Goddess-influenced works, was a man of strong convictions, who had no use for any form of reason, doubt or introspection. And so, in this book, which purports to be yet another in the series of literary anti-utopians, what strikes one most is not the reflected critique of contemporary society, or of the ideals of some in contemporary society, but Graves' extraordinary assumptions, which are unapologetically on display for all to see.
Thus we learn that it is natural that the 'common herd' of humanity are inferior beings, unfitted to governing themselves or anything else. Indeed, it is clear that Graves sees that most 'ordinary' people are simply sub-human, and have to be managed by their betters, simply for their own good. Moreover, their opinions and tastes are utterly worthless. So, Graves tells us repeatedly (and tediously) that the scholar, the scientist, the doctor, the politician, the businessman, all of them are the enemies of humanity, for they wish only to destroy the human in order to further their goal of 'increasing their already overly great knowledge' or killing people (doctors and politicians) or making money (the businessmen). In fact he might be a fashionable anti-capitalist, especially as he suffers from the same failing of not gathering that one cannot become a rich captain of industry without plenty of people well-enough-off to buy things from you. But then, Graves, like your anti-capitalist, would argue that economics is a science, and so fundamentally anti-human, and so it doesn't matter if his beliefs contradict it.
And what is so great about his beliefs that they are insusceptible to any form of criticism? Simple. He is a poet. As a poet, he naturally speaks for the soul of humanity, and knows truth. This is undoubted and unquestionable. After all, why do the monstrous followers of empiricism allow poets to continue to exist? Because, he tells us, they know that without poets to show them the way, people would simply curl up and die. For poets know truth and bring life. Of course, poets, at least Gravesian poets, must be careful what they write. You can't just call any old text in rhyming couplets poetry. Apparently true poetry, by its nature, must be above the commons (yes, we're back to them), even incomprehensible to them, for if they could appreciate it, then it must, by necessity, be so degraded that it is not truth. One is forcibly reminded of the curious phase in Graves' life when he and Laura Riding started what was essentially a cult devoted to worshipping them and their utterly esoteric poetry.
So, there is a natural division of society, with poets and fantasists on top, and thinkers and workers o the bottom. What else does Graves have to teach us? Oh many things. Many splendid things. For example, in a long and utterly ludicrous debate on the nature of love, and its higher forms (which is startlingly reminscent of Barbarella's dismissal of making love 'the old fashioned way'), Graves makes it clear when when he loves a woman, he does not love her, but an image of her that he conceives in his head, and which need have no connection to the actual woman undergoing his attentions. So he objectifies women, and he makes it clear that this is right and proper and the way things should be. We learn that the lower orders make his life miserable with their talk and their radio sets, and it would be much better if they were constrained in appropriate awe of their elders and betters. For the different classes of society have nothing in common, and must be separated, for the good of all. Or at least so the top caste tells the others. And we learn that real education consists of rote learning of (what else?) poems.
And so that's it. There's no plot. Just this rather nasty sociology, mingled with a depressingly large amount of Graves' highly contentious views about the 'Goddess'. Oddly, what worked rather well in his pre-Hellenic fantasy 'The Golden Fleece' fails utterly in a rather preach dystopia. Unfortunately, it is Graves the maker of myths (he was, after all, a founder member of what has since become the Blackadder school of history) who is on display here, and not the deftly brilliant author of 'I Claudius'. Then - Graves considered 'I Claudius' a pot-boiler aimed at the commons; books like this were, he believed, his true art.
Thus we learn that it is natural that the 'common herd' of humanity are inferior beings, unfitted to governing themselves or anything else. Indeed, it is clear that Graves sees that most 'ordinary' people are simply sub-human, and have to be managed by their betters, simply for their own good. Moreover, their opinions and tastes are utterly worthless. So, Graves tells us repeatedly (and tediously) that the scholar, the scientist, the doctor, the politician, the businessman, all of them are the enemies of humanity, for they wish only to destroy the human in order to further their goal of 'increasing their already overly great knowledge' or killing people (doctors and politicians) or making money (the businessmen). In fact he might be a fashionable anti-capitalist, especially as he suffers from the same failing of not gathering that one cannot become a rich captain of industry without plenty of people well-enough-off to buy things from you. But then, Graves, like your anti-capitalist, would argue that economics is a science, and so fundamentally anti-human, and so it doesn't matter if his beliefs contradict it.
And what is so great about his beliefs that they are insusceptible to any form of criticism? Simple. He is a poet. As a poet, he naturally speaks for the soul of humanity, and knows truth. This is undoubted and unquestionable. After all, why do the monstrous followers of empiricism allow poets to continue to exist? Because, he tells us, they know that without poets to show them the way, people would simply curl up and die. For poets know truth and bring life. Of course, poets, at least Gravesian poets, must be careful what they write. You can't just call any old text in rhyming couplets poetry. Apparently true poetry, by its nature, must be above the commons (yes, we're back to them), even incomprehensible to them, for if they could appreciate it, then it must, by necessity, be so degraded that it is not truth. One is forcibly reminded of the curious phase in Graves' life when he and Laura Riding started what was essentially a cult devoted to worshipping them and their utterly esoteric poetry.
So, there is a natural division of society, with poets and fantasists on top, and thinkers and workers o the bottom. What else does Graves have to teach us? Oh many things. Many splendid things. For example, in a long and utterly ludicrous debate on the nature of love, and its higher forms (which is startlingly reminscent of Barbarella's dismissal of making love 'the old fashioned way'), Graves makes it clear when when he loves a woman, he does not love her, but an image of her that he conceives in his head, and which need have no connection to the actual woman undergoing his attentions. So he objectifies women, and he makes it clear that this is right and proper and the way things should be. We learn that the lower orders make his life miserable with their talk and their radio sets, and it would be much better if they were constrained in appropriate awe of their elders and betters. For the different classes of society have nothing in common, and must be separated, for the good of all. Or at least so the top caste tells the others. And we learn that real education consists of rote learning of (what else?) poems.
And so that's it. There's no plot. Just this rather nasty sociology, mingled with a depressingly large amount of Graves' highly contentious views about the 'Goddess'. Oddly, what worked rather well in his pre-Hellenic fantasy 'The Golden Fleece' fails utterly in a rather preach dystopia. Unfortunately, it is Graves the maker of myths (he was, after all, a founder member of what has since become the Blackadder school of history) who is on display here, and not the deftly brilliant author of 'I Claudius'. Then - Graves considered 'I Claudius' a pot-boiler aimed at the commons; books like this were, he believed, his true art.
August 3, 2013
Judging from other Graves' works, I expected this book to be too dreamy and serious for its own good. I was astonished to see that I was wrong. The story flows without the reader even noticing it, and the writing is playful. I read it in one sitting and was thirsty for more.
With this book, Graves is coming back to the his favourite theme of the Goddess and dreams of a Utopia without wars, money and crime. An attractive perspective, but, like every other Utopia, it's too good to be true, and the protagonist knows it.
With this book, Graves is coming back to the his favourite theme of the Goddess and dreams of a Utopia without wars, money and crime. An attractive perspective, but, like every other Utopia, it's too good to be true, and the protagonist knows it.
November 3, 2018
I love Robert Graves and really wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't. Unlike his historical fiction masterpiece, I, CLAUDIUS, this book is a futuristic flight of fancy that is untethered from any recognizable version of actual human experience. Don't get me wrong, I love good fantasy and science fiction, but this book is a good illustration of the truth that the further removed the plot and setting of a story is from what we might call "objective reality," the more grounded it needs to be in terms of sentence and scene-level emotional and sensory accuracy. The book's fanciful story-world and highly implausible premise require suspension of disbelief on nearly every page, and Graves makes little to no effort to meet the reader halfway. An amusing diversion at best.
February 23, 2022
A philosophical but whimsical time-travel fantasy about a far-future sterile utopia dedicated to the Greek Goddess
I don't know very much about all of Robert Graves more substantial works such as The White Goddess, I Claudius, The Golden Fleece, etc. (other than a quick glance on Wikipedia) or his personal and academic life. I just know he was obsessed with this White Goddess concept. I wouldn't have known about this now obscure book published in 1949 at all either if it weren't featured in David Pringle's Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels: in English Language Selection, 1946-1987. And I only got around to it as I found an audiobook version.
It's a very unusual and somewhat droll story of a British poet who is transported many centuries into the future to a strange utopia on New Crete dedicated to going back to a pre-industrial lifestyle and pre-Christian worship of a White Goddess inspired by the Greeks. It's more of a thought experiment than a plausible bit of extrapolation, and unlike his more serious academic works, it pokes a lot of fun at the sterile and absurd practices of this dull future utopia with its slavish and unquestioning observation of elaborate social rituals, while at the same time highlighting all of the terrible social problems of the present world (from the perspective of a British academic and poet post-WWII of course) and how they have all been solved in the utopia, but at a very high price indeed.
This society has banished evil in all its forms, but also lacks any real intellectual freedoms or passions as well, very much in the classic mold of dystopian tales like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Evgeny Zamyatin's We. So it's his purpose to bring back conflict, iconoclasm, jealousy and passion to this stuffy utopia, apparently at the Goddess' will, though it is she that New Crete is dedicated to. I quite enjoyed all the observations he made, and also though his own very upper-middleclass British snobbery was also exposed to some ridicule, so the book is very meta in that sense. It's not really a story in the conventional sense with a plot or narrative, but it always kept my interest throughout.
I don't know very much about all of Robert Graves more substantial works such as The White Goddess, I Claudius, The Golden Fleece, etc. (other than a quick glance on Wikipedia) or his personal and academic life. I just know he was obsessed with this White Goddess concept. I wouldn't have known about this now obscure book published in 1949 at all either if it weren't featured in David Pringle's Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels: in English Language Selection, 1946-1987. And I only got around to it as I found an audiobook version.
It's a very unusual and somewhat droll story of a British poet who is transported many centuries into the future to a strange utopia on New Crete dedicated to going back to a pre-industrial lifestyle and pre-Christian worship of a White Goddess inspired by the Greeks. It's more of a thought experiment than a plausible bit of extrapolation, and unlike his more serious academic works, it pokes a lot of fun at the sterile and absurd practices of this dull future utopia with its slavish and unquestioning observation of elaborate social rituals, while at the same time highlighting all of the terrible social problems of the present world (from the perspective of a British academic and poet post-WWII of course) and how they have all been solved in the utopia, but at a very high price indeed.
This society has banished evil in all its forms, but also lacks any real intellectual freedoms or passions as well, very much in the classic mold of dystopian tales like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Evgeny Zamyatin's We. So it's his purpose to bring back conflict, iconoclasm, jealousy and passion to this stuffy utopia, apparently at the Goddess' will, though it is she that New Crete is dedicated to. I quite enjoyed all the observations he made, and also though his own very upper-middleclass British snobbery was also exposed to some ridicule, so the book is very meta in that sense. It's not really a story in the conventional sense with a plot or narrative, but it always kept my interest throughout.
October 18, 2016
I don't often read the blurb on the back of a book before reading because, if I trust a recommendation to read a book in the first place, then I prefer to know as little as possible about it in advance. However, I didn't pick this up on a recommendation; rather I stumbled upon it in a library. Too often the blurb on the back can throw spoilers at you that I would rather avoid but that was not the case this time, quite the opposite. It lead me to expect something rather different from what I got. Quite misleading in fact.
While reading a book with inappropriate expectations is not as annoying as accidentally encountering spoilers, in this case it proved rather annoying as the story was far less interesting that the blurb on the back led me to believe it would be. And I'm not sure if I can discuss here exactly why that was the case without committing the cardinal sin of revealing spoilers...
It was an interesting enough premise and the developments of the story maintained my interest until the end but I couldn't help feeling that it unfolded strangely and petered out by the conclusion, in which I was less than impressed. I'm not really sure that I understand what the author was trying to say. A peculiar religious and utopian vision that, despite the protagonist's scepticism, I felt the author was trying very hard to sell to the reader.
I doubt I'll seek out anything else by this admittedly well renowned author.
While reading a book with inappropriate expectations is not as annoying as accidentally encountering spoilers, in this case it proved rather annoying as the story was far less interesting that the blurb on the back led me to believe it would be. And I'm not sure if I can discuss here exactly why that was the case without committing the cardinal sin of revealing spoilers...
It was an interesting enough premise and the developments of the story maintained my interest until the end but I couldn't help feeling that it unfolded strangely and petered out by the conclusion, in which I was less than impressed. I'm not really sure that I understand what the author was trying to say. A peculiar religious and utopian vision that, despite the protagonist's scepticism, I felt the author was trying very hard to sell to the reader.
I doubt I'll seek out anything else by this admittedly well renowned author.
December 30, 2017
This is a vehicle that the author used to explore his view of the Goddess - that is to say his unorthodox idea that Christianity was created by men seizing control of spirituality and religion from the more poetic Goddess. New Crete, the nation the protagonist visits in the future is a "utopia" that worships the Goddess. One sees some of what must have been ambiguity in the author's mind about the morals and survival of such a society. His stay there is at first a pleasant Amish-like low tech place that sounds ideal. It turns out to be much more complex, a place with complex social regulations that can get you "killed" - mind wiped - or worse. Unlike anything I've read, but to what end?
June 11, 2008
Reviewed in A Reader's Delight, by Noel Perrin. An incomparable story. I would give almost anything to be able to live in this world.
August 8, 2022
2.5⭐️ o 3?
Ma il finale? Sono... non lo so nemmeno io. Confusa?
Ma il finale? Sono... non lo so nemmeno io. Confusa?
May 24, 2019
This is another curious book by the remarkable Robert Graves. I first met him when his "The Greek Myths" was used as our standard text in a course I took in college. The professor mentioned that he had written a curious book "The White Goddess". Being fond of curious literature I read that and was mostly dumbfounded but also highly entertained. Then I read the Claudius books and Belisarius and then drifted away for many years. Visiting Mallorca last April revived my interest and I read "The Golden Fleece" (retitled Hercules my Shipmate). And now this.
Here Graves attempts to reinvent the society of the Great Goddess including rituals and forms of worship. There are elements of Fantasy but they are used solely to bring the social and religious elements into focus.
Much of the book is in the form of our protaganist - a poet from our age - asking questions and being answered by various experts of the future New Crete. Magic does occur and our poet meets The Goddess herself on a couple of occassions - in the form of a crone, first, and then of a young woman. And at the last, having given himself to her, he becomes a vessel for her prophecy.
Few of the characters are multi dimensioned and the "plot" is mostly a progression learning about the society until he reaches the point where he accepts the ritualistic murder, dismemberment and cannabilism of a young man.
So why did I like it? Well, it is a curious book. I suspect Graves wrote it largely to answer his own questions - and to ask them; having the chance to think deeply about them. A well read reader will certainly find references to ancient beliefs and rituals. Not being that well read I still managed to discover Minoan elements as well as Greek. Of corse one wonders: What was it like when the world was alive and sacred?
Here Graves attempts to reinvent the society of the Great Goddess including rituals and forms of worship. There are elements of Fantasy but they are used solely to bring the social and religious elements into focus.
Much of the book is in the form of our protaganist - a poet from our age - asking questions and being answered by various experts of the future New Crete. Magic does occur and our poet meets The Goddess herself on a couple of occassions - in the form of a crone, first, and then of a young woman. And at the last, having given himself to her, he becomes a vessel for her prophecy.
Few of the characters are multi dimensioned and the "plot" is mostly a progression learning about the society until he reaches the point where he accepts the ritualistic murder, dismemberment and cannabilism of a young man.
So why did I like it? Well, it is a curious book. I suspect Graves wrote it largely to answer his own questions - and to ask them; having the chance to think deeply about them. A well read reader will certainly find references to ancient beliefs and rituals. Not being that well read I still managed to discover Minoan elements as well as Greek. Of corse one wonders: What was it like when the world was alive and sacred?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 20, 2021
I loved this book in my 20's. Now, on a reread, I enjoyed the first third and wonder what I saw in the rest. I can't see much at all of value in Graves' cult of the goddess or his refashioned society, other than his evident pleasure in stirring things up!
May 8, 2020
Personalmente non l'ho trovato il miglior scritto di Graves. Avendo molto apprezzato altri suoi lavori più biografici e di narrativa storica, non mi sono ritrovato molto coinvolto in questo romanzo.
Il romanzo è la storia di un inglese vittoriano che viene evocato mille anni avanti nel tempo da un gruppo di maghi del futuro, allo scopo da parte loro di poter investigare le società passate. Il protagonista si ritrova quindi in una società, quella Neo Cretese, che all'apparenza sembra di assolute serenità ed equilibrio, ma che poi si rivela anch'essa ammorbata dalle piccolezze dell'umanità.
L'autore ha voluto mostrare come l'essere umano sia certo perfettibile ma, per sua natura, fallace. Con uno stile estremamente "piatto" credo abbia voluto ritrarre lo sbigottimento di un inglese vittoriano, estremamente posato e misurato, in un periodo dove gli uomini mostrano assoluta sincerità. Il problema è che questo toglie gran parte del coinvolgimento nella lettura, regalandoci una sorta di erudito resoconto di viaggio.
Sarà per questo che lo stesso Graves, in una sua lettere, lo ha definitio non certo il suo miglior lavoro.
Il romanzo è la storia di un inglese vittoriano che viene evocato mille anni avanti nel tempo da un gruppo di maghi del futuro, allo scopo da parte loro di poter investigare le società passate. Il protagonista si ritrova quindi in una società, quella Neo Cretese, che all'apparenza sembra di assolute serenità ed equilibrio, ma che poi si rivela anch'essa ammorbata dalle piccolezze dell'umanità.
L'autore ha voluto mostrare come l'essere umano sia certo perfettibile ma, per sua natura, fallace. Con uno stile estremamente "piatto" credo abbia voluto ritrarre lo sbigottimento di un inglese vittoriano, estremamente posato e misurato, in un periodo dove gli uomini mostrano assoluta sincerità. Il problema è che questo toglie gran parte del coinvolgimento nella lettura, regalandoci una sorta di erudito resoconto di viaggio.
Sarà per questo che lo stesso Graves, in una sua lettere, lo ha definitio non certo il suo miglior lavoro.
April 13, 2014
A poet from our time (1949) is transported years into the future, which is now a peaceful, Goddess worshipping world culture where money, technology, and wars have been eliminated and people live in rural villages and in defined social groups. I love utopia/dystopia fiction, and part of what I love is being dropped into this alternate world and figuring out how things work. This one doesn’t have that because from when he arrives, everything is explained to him (and us.) I don’t believe for a second that this culture would work; I don’t have that much faith in humanity, but it’s interesting to speculate. What made it a page turner was the interactions between the protagonist and other characters including a troublesome woman from his past who has somehow appeared in the future with him. But that sort of fizzled out and it was ultimately kind of philosophical musing about Goddess culture and good and evil, which was okay (especially because of my acquaintance with the Goddess) but eh.
June 4, 2015
Se il male venisse bandito dalla nostra società, esisterebbe il bene? È attorno a questa domanda che ruota il romanzo di Graves, che per rispondere invia un suo alter ego in un futuro lontano, nella pacifica e amena società di Nuova Creta. La lettura è piacevole, intrisa di simbolismo e rimandi a La Dea Bianca, saggio di pochi anni anteriore, ma anche di momenti divertenti, quasi comici. Per molti versi mi ha ricordato Uno yankee alla corte di Re Artù: stesso intento dissacratorio, sia nei confronti della società contemporanea agli autori, sia rispetto a vagheggiate utopie di decrescita o pacifiste.
March 12, 2010
To his great credit, there are some very beautiful ideas put forward in this trip-to-the-future book. The strength of the book was overwhelmingly in the few moments where, sorta, the history of the future is discussed. The plot itself is weak, discordant, and I remained entirely unsympathetic to the main characters. Graves was tackling a lot of enormous ideas here, and I guess I was disappointed with the way he ended up dealing (or abandoning) them. And in the end, vague incestuous plots always creep me out.
August 25, 2016
It started out like a garden variety chatty utopian vision but at some point that changed. It was as if Graves decided, f*ck this noise, I want to tell a real story. And what a story it is.
It was amazing until (for me) it went clunk at the end. Although I can't think of how else it might have ended....
glad to have discovered this. Graves is an amazing writer. Amazing.
It was amazing until (for me) it went clunk at the end. Although I can't think of how else it might have ended....
glad to have discovered this. Graves is an amazing writer. Amazing.
October 28, 2020
A dreadfully bland story, pages and pages and pages of boring exposition, just extremely forgettable. The premise is great, but the execution falls way short. It's a shame, because Graves is one of my favourites and clearly a gifted writer, and the best parts are easily when his humour shines through, though those are relatively few and far between. Easily his worst book I've read so far.
March 5, 2015
There were a few too many rules in the futuristic societies portrayed, and some divisive assumptions that were less than helpful, so I couldn't enjoy the story as much as I hoped. Graves scooped the one feature that makes my varoks so alien, but it played out in a very different way.
October 26, 2015
So captivating that I read in one sitting. Also known as 'Watch the North Wind Rise'
July 19, 2012
Interesting, thoughtful, and fun.
August 14, 2013
Bylo tam par pěkných myšlenek ale většinu času mi to připadalo jako brutální nuda, navíc na hlavu postavená. Tak trochu Labyrint světa ale tomu to nesahá ani po paty.
March 16, 2020
Peculiar time travel fantasy, but it has its charms.
January 30, 2022
Robert von Ranke Graves was to put it mildly a complicated person. Over a lifetime of 90 years, he was a poet, failed grocer, WWI army officer, professor in Cairo, and wrote more than 140 works--probably the most famous of which was I, Claudius. Sieben Tage (I read this in German because I picked up a copy on a remainder table in Munich many years ago) was written near the end of his life. Parts of it are quite brilliant, others could have done with a little more thinking through.
The premise is that an English poet, Edward Venn-Thomas, was transported from "Late Christian Europe" to "New Crete"--a Utopian 25th century society which is dedicated to worshipping the Goddess Mary--who herself takes many forms. Edward is apparently brought to clarify some questions about the English language--in New Crete an "ancient" language of sorts. The society seems ideal in many ways, although "custom" (or "die Sitten") is quite heavy. No paper is allowed, there are strictly speaking 5 classes (magicians, historians, leaders, servants, and the common stand), with strict rules flowing from these different classes. Money is not in evidence, but instead people or even villages specialize on certain products and people take what they need. "War" is ritualized and non-mortal--we see a battle between two villages which resembles more a spirited game of Capture the Flag than a war--and a requirement is that the war is over in a day, with the challenger village preparing a feast for all contestants at the end of the day.
Graves uses the construct of "New Crete" to in effect challenge many of the current practices in effect in 20th century Europe--ambition is discouraged (hints of an idealized Hinduism), as people focus on relationship within their villages and within their classes/castes. As per the goddess, it is a matriarchal society. When one retires, is precisely when he or she is freed from the "customs", and unrestrained forms of individual behavior and even sex starts then. The "King" is sacrificed every few years, with an overtone of fertility rites implicit. Further, there is a Christian overtone in that we are told that because the King is sacrificed every few years in a ritual sacrifice, murder by any one else does not occur. There is also re-incarnation for those who do not ask to be released from such rebirth, although rebirth can occur in different classes/castes, etc. Graves notes that if a society is not in some way governed by a "true (means practiced) religion", all that is left is the worship of money.
Graves also notes that a society based only on laws--and not faith in something or in close personal community--had no common values and accordingly "only charlatans would come forth to govern them."
The German version (translated by Peter Marginter) was very good, with subtle twists and bright debates occurring throughout.
A provocative novel, based on decades of experience and thinking by a classicist with a sense of humor--3.8 I would say. But not for everyone for sure.
The premise is that an English poet, Edward Venn-Thomas, was transported from "Late Christian Europe" to "New Crete"--a Utopian 25th century society which is dedicated to worshipping the Goddess Mary--who herself takes many forms. Edward is apparently brought to clarify some questions about the English language--in New Crete an "ancient" language of sorts. The society seems ideal in many ways, although "custom" (or "die Sitten") is quite heavy. No paper is allowed, there are strictly speaking 5 classes (magicians, historians, leaders, servants, and the common stand), with strict rules flowing from these different classes. Money is not in evidence, but instead people or even villages specialize on certain products and people take what they need. "War" is ritualized and non-mortal--we see a battle between two villages which resembles more a spirited game of Capture the Flag than a war--and a requirement is that the war is over in a day, with the challenger village preparing a feast for all contestants at the end of the day.
Graves uses the construct of "New Crete" to in effect challenge many of the current practices in effect in 20th century Europe--ambition is discouraged (hints of an idealized Hinduism), as people focus on relationship within their villages and within their classes/castes. As per the goddess, it is a matriarchal society. When one retires, is precisely when he or she is freed from the "customs", and unrestrained forms of individual behavior and even sex starts then. The "King" is sacrificed every few years, with an overtone of fertility rites implicit. Further, there is a Christian overtone in that we are told that because the King is sacrificed every few years in a ritual sacrifice, murder by any one else does not occur. There is also re-incarnation for those who do not ask to be released from such rebirth, although rebirth can occur in different classes/castes, etc. Graves notes that if a society is not in some way governed by a "true (means practiced) religion", all that is left is the worship of money.
Graves also notes that a society based only on laws--and not faith in something or in close personal community--had no common values and accordingly "only charlatans would come forth to govern them."
The German version (translated by Peter Marginter) was very good, with subtle twists and bright debates occurring throughout.
A provocative novel, based on decades of experience and thinking by a classicist with a sense of humor--3.8 I would say. But not for everyone for sure.
April 24, 2018
Yeah, this one sucks.
So I read this because it's a friend of mine's favourite book and I honestly cannot comprehend how or why. This is the kind of book that would never, ever get published if it had been written nowadays. It's basically just a fuckfest of symbolism, metaphors, and social criticisms all mixed in with a bunch of misogyny, borderline pedophilia, homophobia, transphobia, and obnoxiously bad writing.
I have to admit that I was interested at first because it starts off with a bunch of worldbuilding as our main character, Edward "a-poet-from-the-past" Venn-Thomas is introduced to New Crete and the people that take him there (through some weird evocation) explain how the society works and how it came to be. That was slightly interesting, although kinda boring and unnecessary. But then came the "plot" (emphasis on the quotation marks) which barely exists. Turns out, Edward was taken to New Crete by their goddess because the new cretans have become too comfortable with their perfect lives and they need some chaos to wake up. But even though this is an interesting concept, it's so badly executed that it hurts.
There's a bunch of references to gay men and trans men being freaks and mistakes and errors (at the end there's a ballet and one of the scenes in it includes a group of Perverts - yes, they're called that - that dance maniacally and are described as being men who like to do womenly things - like sowing - and want to be women but they're also incredibly sacred because they want to be close to the goddess and the men in the theatre get extremely uncomfortable with their presence - like wtf did I really read that???).
So, all in all, terrible book, don't bother reading it. There are many many better books that deal with these topics. Save yourself the trouble.
So I read this because it's a friend of mine's favourite book and I honestly cannot comprehend how or why. This is the kind of book that would never, ever get published if it had been written nowadays. It's basically just a fuckfest of symbolism, metaphors, and social criticisms all mixed in with a bunch of misogyny, borderline pedophilia, homophobia, transphobia, and obnoxiously bad writing.
I have to admit that I was interested at first because it starts off with a bunch of worldbuilding as our main character, Edward "a-poet-from-the-past" Venn-Thomas is introduced to New Crete and the people that take him there (through some weird evocation) explain how the society works and how it came to be. That was slightly interesting, although kinda boring and unnecessary. But then came the "plot" (emphasis on the quotation marks) which barely exists. Turns out, Edward was taken to New Crete by their goddess because the new cretans have become too comfortable with their perfect lives and they need some chaos to wake up. But even though this is an interesting concept, it's so badly executed that it hurts.
There's a bunch of references to gay men and trans men being freaks and mistakes and errors (at the end there's a ballet and one of the scenes in it includes a group of Perverts - yes, they're called that - that dance maniacally and are described as being men who like to do womenly things - like sowing - and want to be women but they're also incredibly sacred because they want to be close to the goddess and the men in the theatre get extremely uncomfortable with their presence - like wtf did I really read that???).
So, all in all, terrible book, don't bother reading it. There are many many better books that deal with these topics. Save yourself the trouble.
November 14, 2020
Edward Venn-Thomas is a "barbarian" from the past, according to the some future people of New Crete. That must also be true to most people in our epoch, it seems, by reading the other reviews of this little gem.
Although not a masterpiece, this book leads us to discover a weird utopia which, by outsourcing its customs from the antiquity, stands as somehow believable even now, and it does so in a pleasant way which makes you involved in its strange yet increasingly relatable characters. I loved the feeling of not knowing what was going to happen at every page as well as not being sure of what was happening - a feeling surely shared by the protagonist for most of the novel.
As scandalous as a tale on such delicate themes can be, the plot touches many difficult subjects in unexpected ways, but it is the way it deals with good and evil which makes it interesting if not extraordinary - how values can change according to time and culture.
Those who remarked how the novel had been partial to several classes of people should pay better attention to how the different points of views are shown throughout it, as if underlining how no opinion or custom can be perfect.
I might be wrong, but I think this is a work that can only be disliked if not properly understood in its keen sense of humour and provoking way to depict humanity.
Although not a masterpiece, this book leads us to discover a weird utopia which, by outsourcing its customs from the antiquity, stands as somehow believable even now, and it does so in a pleasant way which makes you involved in its strange yet increasingly relatable characters. I loved the feeling of not knowing what was going to happen at every page as well as not being sure of what was happening - a feeling surely shared by the protagonist for most of the novel.
As scandalous as a tale on such delicate themes can be, the plot touches many difficult subjects in unexpected ways, but it is the way it deals with good and evil which makes it interesting if not extraordinary - how values can change according to time and culture.
Those who remarked how the novel had been partial to several classes of people should pay better attention to how the different points of views are shown throughout it, as if underlining how no opinion or custom can be perfect.
I might be wrong, but I think this is a work that can only be disliked if not properly understood in its keen sense of humour and provoking way to depict humanity.
January 11, 2020
Tedious tale of a chap who wakes up in the distant future and finds himself in a pastoral society of peasants and artisans which is governed by witches. White ones though, who service a goddess who is liable to pop up in some surprising manifestation at any time. The society styles itself as ‘New Cretan� and seems to live by the principle that everything done must be done with love. Its sole merit seems to be that it produces beautiful women, two of whom fall inexplicably in love with the 20th century visitor. Apparently its all a plot by the goddess to shake up a social order which has become a bit stagnant. She wasn’t kidding.
It’s been lying around, unread, on my bookshelves for decades and I can only think I acquired it at the time I was reading Grave’s Claudius novels, and Count Belisarius, which I had enjoyed hugely. The cover describes it as a ‘science fantasy novel�, which is a hook that would normally stir my interest, but this time it came up with a very flat, boring tale.
It’s been lying around, unread, on my bookshelves for decades and I can only think I acquired it at the time I was reading Grave’s Claudius novels, and Count Belisarius, which I had enjoyed hugely. The cover describes it as a ‘science fantasy novel�, which is a hook that would normally stir my interest, but this time it came up with a very flat, boring tale.
October 22, 2020
The portrayal of the future was incredible. Deeply evocative, every facet of New Crete was something to think about. There’s so much wisdom in this book. There were some inappropriately outdated content - pedophilia, sexual assault, and racism - that at times overshadow the compelling narrative. The mentions are all in the last fifty pages, making it worse because you get through most of the book enthralled by this lost classic, and then bam some pretty unsavory sexualization of children and hybrid African people/monkeys... if you can look past those last fifty pages, this is a fascinating read. Some ideas of utopia I’ve never seen elsewhere that are actually good. Incredible that it was written in the 40s.
Read
October 28, 2022I’m not sure what exactly to write about this book. The concept was interesting but the writing is of course (based on publication date) out of touch with the modern society. I think you def need to have knowledge about Ancient Greek goddesses/structures/philosophy to understand the book. I would like to see someone do a similar concept with todays modern world. I don’t feel like I gained anything having read this book unlike other utopian novels that make me think about the world or myself differently. So if your looking for a way to spend a few hours and know about Ancient Greek society you would probably enjoy it otherwise skip.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.