Wife to Mr Milton

Wife to Mr Milton is not a great book. Robert Graves apparently wrote the book to express his disgust with and disdain of John Milton - and to try to convince his readers to hold the same opinion.

Publishers also seem to think it's not a great book. I can guarantee that you will have a hard time finding a copy of Wife to Mr Milton (I stumbled across my 50-year-old copy by mistake in a Berkeley secondhand bookstore).

I am, though, on my third reading of this book. The reason I'm reading it yet again is because it has one of the most realistic and convincing heroines I have ever come across. Robert Graves has the rare talent of being able to write a character of the opposite sex convincingly (if you don't believe this is a rare talent, read a Victor Hugo or Jane Austen novel).

This book is a fictional reconstruction of Marie Powell's marriage to John Milton. Marie is wise, independent, passionate, petty and foolish by turns - but ultimately likable, and you can't help but feel sorry for her being encumbered by John Milton. It's written as an autobiography, based on a journal she kept from a year before her marriage until near her death while still a young woman.

One well-done scene is toward the beginning when, before her marriage, Marie falls sick and faints in the kitchen. Most of the household runs away because they are afraid that she has the plague. Her father hesitates in the doorway, torn between helping his daughter and protecting the rest of his family. If he catches the plague and dies then the rest of the family will end up in poverty. In the end, a servant helps Marie. Robert Graves neatly illustrates the conflict between compassion for the individual and the need to protect the family - and lays the groundwork for Marie being given away in marriage.

As with all of Robert Graves' books, there is a lot going on underneath the surface, which I must admit I only partially understand. Robert Graves' books usually have these undercurrents that fundamentally challenge traditional assumptions and the patriarchal society they're attached to.

If you want to read a great novel by Robert Graves, read I, Claudius. If you want to read a book which isn't great but that presents a completely convincing heroine and vividly portrays England before and during the Civil War, Wife to Mr Milton is a good choice.

Comments

[Albert Fenton]

You are certainly entitled to your opinion of " Wife to Mr. Milton". However you are quite wrong in supposing any difficulty in obtaining it. ABEBOOKS alone has 120 copies for sale, and it is also available on Amazon .co.uk and Amazon .com.