Goodbye to All That

Graves begins a friendship with Colonel T.E. Lawrence, a British officer, archaeologist, and writer, at Oxford. Lawrence has secured a seven-year fellowship to All Souls' College at Oxford, which he spends "tinkering at the second draft of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom" (297), his account of his military service in the Middle East. Graves knows "nothing definite of Lawrence's wartime activities" (298), and the two men share an unspoken pact that "the War should not be mentioned" (298) during their "too-good-to-be-true relaxation" (298) at Oxford. The two men chat and give feedback on each other's writing.

One day, in the middle of a university vacation, Nancy tells Graves that she's stifled at Boar's Hill. Leaving their children in the care of a nurse, the two ride off on their bicycles. Having brought no blankets, they sleep during the day and ride at night. They end up at the home of novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, where Hardy entertains them with tea and talks about writing and the postwar life. From there, the Graves continue on to Devonshire, where an old nurse of Nancy's keeps a "fancy-goods shop" (307). Nancy helps the woman dress the shop-window and gives other advice on displaying her goods. As a result, the shop's sales increase after the Graves leave.

On returning to Boar's Hill, Nancy gets the idea to start a shop of their own. They find a space to rent close to the road, and a local carpenter builds the simple shop for Nancy. As customers begin piling up, the Graves decide to become "a large general shop[…]more or less independent from Oxford" (308). Graves helps Nancy run the store while still attending his lectures at Oxford. With prices fluctuating due to postwar instability, the Graves find it hard to "resist the temptation of undercharging the poor villagers[…]and recovering our money from the richer residents" (308). The Graves do this, undetected, for six months, until the prices being plummeting and the poorer residents have run up considerable debt. The Graves must sell off the shop and its goods at bankruptcy prices and still end up £300 in debt. Nancy's father and Colonel Lawrence pay the remainder.

The Graves give the Masefields notice that they intend to move out by the end of June 1921. Undecided on where they will go, Nancy begins drawing their ideal cottage. Graves writes down all the details about it that she gives, though they think it's impossible to find such a place during a housing shortage. Still, Graves goes to the house-agents in Oxford with their list of specifications. The house-agent tells Graves that he's just described the "World's End cottage" (311) in the village of Islip; the property is for sale, but not for rent. Graves’s mother buys the cottage for them and rents it to them for a low price.

The Graves live in Islip, an agricultural village, for four years. There, they have two more children, and tend to all the housework themselves. Though Graves finds himself able to work "through frequent interruptions" (313) by the children, Nancy finds herself unable to draw. The children begin school and the Graves try to prevent them from suffering "the mistakes" (314) of their own childhood. Aside from the villagers calling Graves “The Captain,” he has few reminders of the war. Graves has yearly visits to the Medical Board to certify his neurasthenia-induced disability.

Nancy and Graves become involved in local politics, offering use of their house for weekly meetings of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Graves serves on the Parish Council, from which he nearly comes "to blows" (317) over a proposal to build new cottages for ex-soldiers and their wives. The Conservative Party council members oppose the proposition. Graves’s association with the Labour Party severs their friendly relations to "the village gentry" (318) who, based on Graves’s mother's standing, had assumed Graves would stand on their side. In fact, Graves, once invited by the village rector to read poems for a War Memorial service, elects to read war poems about "men dying from gas-poisoning and about buttocks of corpses bulging from the mud" (318). 

With the help of Sir Walter Raleigh, head of Oxford's English School, Graves receives his bachelor's degree despite their past fiasco with the shop. For his thesis, Graves writes "an ordinary book" (320), rather than an academic paper, entitled "The Illogical Element in English Poetry" (320). In it, Graves discusses the "supra-logical element in poetry" (320). Graves also publishes a volume of poetry every year from 1920 to 1925. Graves tries to rid himself "of the poison of war memories" (321) by finishing his war novel but scraps it almost entirely, using some of its parts for this memoir.

The Graves’s life in Islip becomes less cheerful. Nancy suffers from ill health and they still struggle with money. Graves loathes to take a job teaching but fears he will need to do so. Nancy's doctor tells her that, for her health, she needs to spend the winter in Egypt. Serendipitously, Graves finds himself invited to teach as Professor of English Literature at the "newly-founded Royal Egyptian University in Cairo" (323). 

The Graves arrive in Cairo by boat. Under the advice of Graves’s sister-in-law, who lives in Cairo with Graves’s brother, who is a government official, the Graves move into a flat a few miles north of Cairo. There, they employ "two Sudanese servants" (326) to care for the children and perform all the housework. At the Royal University, founded by King Fuad, Graves finds himself one of two English-speaking professors. The rest speak French. The students, "mostly sons of rich merchants and land-owners" (326), speak fluent Arabic, passable English, and very little French. Graves delivers only one lecture a week and finds it "pandemonium" (327). His students are eager to learn and demonstrate their regard for him. Graves delivers his lectures by shouting "at the top of [his] loudest barrack-square voice" (327).

Graves comes to know only two of his students fairly well. He recounts his friendship with a young Turkish man who spoke French and English fluently. The young man had missed class recently to get married. At this first marriage, the bride and groom would not see each other's faces. Graves inquired about "the rights of Moslem women in Egypt" (330) and learned the divorce customs of Egyptians. The other young man, a Greek, invites Graves to tea once. There, Graves meets the man's sisters and engages them in conversation about Egyptian women, whom one sister feels will control Egypt within twenty years.

Graves claims he did two "useful pieces of educational work in Egypt" (334). First, he ordered a library of textbooks for the English Department. Then, he acted as "examiner to the diploma class of the Higher Training College" (334), which supplied English teachers to the primary and secondary schools. Graves saved three essays from these students: one on Darwinian evolution, one on Lady Macbeth, and one on the best use of "leisure time" (336).

Graves resigns from his post in May. Before he leaves Egypt, he attends a formal reception at King Fuad's residence, the Abdin Palace. Graves mistakes the king for the "Grand Chamberlain" (340) and speaks to him in French as such. After Egypt, Graves, Nancy, and their children return to Islip. Graves’s parents express disappointment that he hasn't "seen reason and settled down in a position which equally suited [his] needs and talents" (343). Between 1926 and 1929, Nancy and Graves’s health improves but their "marriage [wears] thin" (343). They divorce in 1929 and Nancy keeps the children. Graves resolves "never to make England [his] home again" (343).

After completing Good-Bye to All That in 1929, Graves moves to Majorca, Spain. He must leave in 1936, though, during the Spanish Civil War. He spends World War II in England as three of his children have joined the military. His daughters, Jenny and Catherine, survive WWII but his son, David, dies in combat in Myanmar. Graves lives out the war in South Devon, away from any military operations. He volunteers for infantry service but can only get "a sedentary appointment" (345). Graves declines this offer and returns to writing. Midway through the war, someone invites Graves to join a special police force but Graves’s village policeman denies Graves’s application. Graves later finds out that his German middle name made the policeman suspicious and rumors had even spread that the words “Heil Hitler!” had been found "scratched on a vegetable marrow" (345) in Graves’s garden. Instead, Graves serves as an air-raid warden.

Graves remarries after the war, has four more children, and settles, once again, in Majorca. Majorca is, to Graves’s dismay, becoming "Europe's most favourite holiday place" (346). Graves feels that though he's become older, he's changed little "mentally or physically" (346) since he first came to Majorca. Upon rereading Good-Bye to All That, Graves doubts that he would do anything differently. He claims that his "conditioning in Protestant morality[…]rebellious nature and an over-riding poetic obsession" (347) are not easily outgrown.