What I like about Robert Graves' 'Wife to Mr. Milton'

Wife to Mr. Milton by Robert Graves

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book is actually difficult to read mainly because it uses so much of the old English language style in its narrative. If you're not familiar with the style, try reading any of Shakespeare's works for you to get an idea. And you need to be quite well read to be able to swim through its pages without consulting the dictionary. But just the same, the book's worth reading as it gives you a fair introduction to English history, especially those about Cromwell, Milton, the regicides (what a word!) and the restoration period during 16th century. I'm intrigued to do more research on what actually took place during those periods --- can you imagine England with its own civil wars and without its well-known monarchy? The protagonist was portrayed to have seen an English king being beheaded, which chapter to me was most intriguing.



One thing that's a bit annoying about this book is its extensive use of unconventional spellings, which I believe during that period is not considered valuable and not followed. There are simply so many different spellings for words that you are sure you've been using for so long but have not thought of being spelled differently.



It's a must reading for women to get an idea of how women were being treated during the periods covered in this book. Women would certainly not want being relegated to the background, just like the very talented wife of Mr. Milton eventually played to her advantage. I'm also fascinated by Robert Graves' narrative use of the works involving mysticism (,e.g., how a woman's child would look like her beloved rather than her actual husband - check this out here!). I'm also tempted to check out Milton's works just to get an idea of his greatness (or the opposite) as a writer.





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