Modern Classics Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth

Sergeant Lamb #1

by Robert Graves

Robert Graves first came across the name of Roger Lamb in 1914, when Graves was an English officer instructing his platoon in regimental history. Lamb was a British soldier who had served his king during the American War of Independence, and whose claim to a footnote in history is that he managed to escape twice from American prison camps. When Graves went to America in the 1930s, he remembered Sergeant Lamb, investigated his story and created this fictionalized memoir telling Lamb's story from his Irish childhood to war and revolution, weaving a mesmerizing tale of courage and adventure.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, American Revolution, Novels, 18th Century, American, British Literature

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Robert 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

Reviews

[DaViD´82 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Učebnice dějepisu formou "jakože dobového cestopisu" vydávaného za historický dobrodružný román à la Waltari. Čili toto je dílo Gravese vysokoškolského profesora, nikoli Gravese "toho romanopisce co napsal Claudia" s echt vyrešeršovanými prameny. Jakkoli vychází (nejen) ze skutečných dobových zápisů Rogera Lamba.

Zpočátku ještě Graves klame tělem. Prvních pár desítek stran to na klasickou historickou dobrodružnou jízdu vypadá; jedna mladická eskapáda stíhá druhou, ale záhy se to překlopí v podrobnou disertačku "nezaujatého důstojníka", která si nebere na paškál nic menšího než dostat se na dřeň vyhrocení vztahů kolonií a Británie. A následuje cestopis "o detailech života na moři během plavby do kolonií", poté "kterak to chodilo, co za faunu žije, a jaká specifika nabízí (ne)lenní právo Quebecu" a takto se pokračuje po celou dobu. Jen tu tam je to prokládáno běžnými dobrodružnými prvky. Je to historická práce, kterou však Graves zaobalil do dobrodružného pozlátka, aby to čtenáři lépe prodal. U mě tím zabodoval, ovšem plně chápu, že ne každému budou po chuti desítky a desítky stran historických detailů a zajímavostí.

Logicky tedy pokulhávají klasické románové prvky; s výjimkou ústřední postavy v podstatě nefunguje charakterizace, nedrží to klasický dějový oblouk a... A navíc to má i druhý díl po upadnutí do amerického zajetí, který však u nás nevyšel.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to add this to my favorites list. It is easily one of my favorite books.
I like how as an old grizzled solider he walks into the British version of a VA in the 1800s with all the swag of being a veteran in colonies. But has to deal with trying to get his incredible story published. An epic read and a British counter to The last of the Mohicans...

[Michael Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graves was a poet. In 1968, at age 73, Queen Elizabeth awarded him the Queen's Gold Metal for Poetry. But, of course, poetry doesn't pay so he supported himself during his long life by his prose writing. He wrote memoirs, biographies, and literary studies but his most successful books were his high-class historical novels.

His 1930s Roman history books, "I Claudius" and its successors, were big sellers and were made into a very popular TV series. This book and its sequel were written in the 1940s. They are the fictional autobiography of a British soldier in the American Revolutionary war.

This book feels rushed. It seems as if Graves did a pile of research and wanted to stuff it all into the book. Early on in the book Lamb gets to the point where he is being shipped off to America. The next chapter begins, "I will begin my short survey of the origins of the American War with....." The "short" survey is a sixty-page potted history of America from 1757 and the French and Indian War to 1775 and the British evacuation of Boston. Then he returns to the story.

The book is full of background and explanations that feel like emptying out the notebook.

The other problem I have is that Sergeant Lamb is not a very vivid character, which is a problem since this is his autobiography. He seems like a sensible, reliable fellow who has a few flaws but overcomes them. At times he gambles too much. His judgment with woman is not great but overall, he is just not that exciting. The contrast with Claudius, who was the narrator of those books, is striking.

Most historical novels tend to depend on coincidences to bring the hero in contact with famous people. Graves does that here. Lamb runs into most of the important people involved in the Canadian campaign. Graves also pushes coincidence awful far to construct a love triangle which Lamb is in the middle of.

Despite all of my complaints, I enjoyed the book. Graves knows how to tell a story. Lamb does feel like a single soldier trying to understand the huge forces around him. I will probably read the sequel.

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Graves wrote what may be considered the best war autobiography (Goodbye to All That, in which he tells of his World War I experience). In this fictional autobiography of Roger Lamb, Graves uses his soldier's sympathies to tell the story of the American Revolution from a different perspective. A Who's-Who of figures (Benedict Arnold, Burgoyne, Schuyler, Horatio Gates, Thayendanegea, Guy Carleton, and many others) wander in and out of the story as Lamb leaves his native Ireland and soldiers in Canada and in the New York campaign that ended with Burgoyne surrendering at Ticonderoga.

Lamb recounts his story in retirement in Ireland and is largely loyal to his king and country and completely loyal to his fellow soldiers. The Americans puzzle him a little, though he manages a consistent interpretation that shows the American motives to be simultaneously idealistic and self-serving.

Being a soldier in this time sounds awful, and being a wounded soldier seems a certain way to make that situation worse. Graves, as always, writes beautifully and crafts a story that cries for a sequel, but it seems he never followed it up.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hodně čtivý kousek z pera Roberta Gravese. Ve zkratce: autor nás zavede do 18. století a z pozice britského důstojníka popisuje válku za nezávislosti Ameriky na Velké Británii. Líbilo se mi dokládání místních reálií, humorné, ale někdy až děsivé příběhy, které skvěle dokreslovaly atmosféru. Při čtení jsem se cítila dokonale ponořená do děje, což se – bohužel – stává docela zřídka. 

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished at last. This was quite heavy going, but I was determined to finish the two novels included in this edition. They concern the life and times of Sergeant Roger Lamb, an Irish soldier in the British Army sent to the colonies to defend the empire during what would become known as The American War of Independence. To provide some background, for those who may not be aware of this little-known contretemps, England used to own a country called America. After England invented tea, the Americans decided it was too expensive and threw it into the sea. The English King George was not impressed and sent some soldiers to Canada and America to sort it all out. The soldiers walked a lot, which must have been confusing as many of the towns in America had the same names as towns in England but were all the wrong distances away from where they should have been. There were quite a few battles, which Sergeant Lamb fought in, and just when it looked like the English soldiers were going to win, the French came to help the colonists and England gave up. I am not sure what happened afterwards, apart from England went to some other countries.

Funnily enough England has recently decided to give Europe back to the Europeans, but this time without all the walking and the battles. So that will probably be the last time we hear about Europe.

On other occasions Robert Graves made me laugh, but not so much this time.

[Francisco · Rating 3 out of 5]

La historia de la independencia estadounidense desde la perspectiva de un casaca roja. Olvídese del heróico "Patriota" de Mel Gibson y enfrentemos un mundo de soldados de carne y hueso, intereses mezquinos y un mundo con tonos de gris, menos narcicista, que este libro no se hizo para ganar en la taquilla. El respetadísimo Robert Graves nos cuenta la historia del Sargento Lamb, un dublinés que toma el camino de las armas siguiendo su ansia de aventura y se embarca a la guerra en América. Un retrato realista de la guerra se abre a los ojos del lector, con escenas brutales, personajes sorprendentes como el mohawk homosexual Cabeza Amarilla, el bravo Benedict Arnold y el mismo Lamb. La historia muestra un ejército inglés más capaz pero con mandos menos comprometidos y descoordinados, se denuncia un ejército americano lejos de ser civilizado y un Pueblo de las Seis Naciones que muestra el protagonismo que el pueblo indio tuvo en la guerra. Para su tiempo, un libro vibrante y de lectura fluida, personajes sólidos como todos los de Graves y un retazo de historia para alimentar el espíritu crítico antes el bombardeo mediático. Que quizás los buenos siempre son creados por los que escriben la historia.

[Vasha7 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This account of the northern campaign at the start of the War of Independence makes a pleasant and rather idiosyncratic novel. It contains far more analysis and description than action; Graves all too obviously did a lot of research in period sources, and it sometimes sounds like he's repeating it verbatim. Nonetheless, in putting these reflections in the mouth of one Sergeant Roger Lamb, native of Dublin, Graves gives them color and unity. Perhaps it's understandable that Lamb has a tendency to informative lectures, being a schoolmaster by profession! The best part of it, of course, is the small incidents and character anecdotes (all taken from real life, says the author in his introduction). The only incidents invented are those relating to Lamb's private and romantic life, and those alone have a certain melodrama to them. (It breaks off with several plot threads unresolved, and vague promises of a sequel.) The novel is written in smooth, clear language with a moderate eighteenth-century flavor; certainly many writers could take lessons in clarity from it.

[José Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Graves es un maestro en este género: tenemos una novela histórica que es historia pura. El sargento Lamb fue un personaje real. Graves, tras consultar una exhaustiva documentación, ha escrito una excelente novela sobre la guerra de la independencia estadounidense que narra en primera persona el protagonista.
Antes de entrar en las propias aventuras del personaje hay una extensa (y quizá un poco farragosa) explicación sobre los orígenes del descontento de la colonia, los errores cometidos por la metrópoli y "la fuerza del destino" que la Historia impone. Fue lo que tuvo que ser porque, más pronto o más tarde hubiera sucedido lo mismo, al igual que las colonias españolas en América y Asia.
Una vez superada esa larga puesta en escena nos encontramos ante una novela interesante, con aventuras que tienen todos los visos de la realidad y con la solvencia de un narrador del prestigio de Graves.
Como él mismo dice en la introducción " Todo lo que los lectores de una novela histórica pueden pedir legítimamente al autor es que no haya falsificado en parte alguna, de forma voluntaria, la geografía, la cronología o el personaje, y que la información contenida en ella sea suficientemente precisa para que pueda sumarse a sus conocimientos generales de historia. Yo estoy en condiciones de ofrecer esa garantía. No he inventado ningún personaje principal [...]. Todas las opiniones que aquí se vierten sobre la guerra, puestas en boca de Lamb o citadas por sus amigos o enemigos -por chocantes que parezcan hoy-, son opiniones reales emitidas durante la Guerra de la Independencia de los Estados Unidos".
Me lo creo.

[Ian Racey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book written in the 1930s, affecting to be a memoir written in the eighteenth century, so there's some allowance that has to be made for a slow build. But this one is a really slow build--after the four chapters on Lamb's early life, we then have four or five chapters detailing the origins of the American Revolution before Lamb's regiment finally arrive in Canada in 1776 around chapter ten, forty per cent of the way into the book.

Which highlights the book's real problem, that almost half of it is spent on the history and politics of Britain and the colonies in the 1770s rather than actual plot and character development.

But when Graves is actually telling Lamb's story, it's really good, especially his relationship with Kate Harlowe. And seriously, how many books from the 1930s can claim to have such a sympathetic and even sweet depiction of a transgender character as this one does?

[Temucano · Rating 3 out of 5]

La puesta en escena de la situación en América toma bastante tiempo, y una vez comienza la acción más parece una crónica del suceso de la Independencia que una historia particular del sargento Lamb. Es cierto que existe un fina línea argumental centrada en el personaje, desde sus comienzos en Irlanda hasta su participación activa en algunas batallas, mas nunca toma preponderancia sobre los hechos históricos y personajes reales que van sucediendo.

Así y todo resulta una lectura entretenida, bien narrada la acción, sin solazarse en el morbo pero con varias escenas fuertes, sobre todo cuando interactúan con los indios, quizás la parte más novelesca del libro. Se aprende bastante de las causas y desarrollo de la Guerra, así como también sobre la geografía imperante, lo que siempre es un agrado.

Ya iré por esa segunda parte, queda en ascuas la suerte del sargento.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Graves was the consummate story teller. This yarn gives fascinating insights into the American War of Independence including some unflattering depictions of the Americans.
There is a suggestion that the motives of the rebels had more to do with self serving politicians and magnates than a genuine lust for libert.
The Americans! You cry - surely not.
(e.g: the Boston Tea Party was motivated not by anger at a tax imposed by Britain but by the concern of an entrepreneur that the tea (even with the tax) undercut the product he had been smuggling and selling).
In all a rollicking good read

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting novel, giving a different perspective on the Revolutionary Wars. It reminded me quite a lot of Bernard Cornwall’s Sharpe novels-with a hero who somehow always seems to be at every important action and meet every key figure, although I don’t think it is quite so well written. It was fun, and easy to read, and I will probably read the sequel.

[Paul Finn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

[Richard Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

More history than a work of fiction told in the first person after the style of ‘I Claudius’. Dry in parts but a well researched account of the American revolutionary Wars.

[Charles R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into history from the British side of things. Holds up well. Based on an actual account.

[Lloyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fictionalized account of a diary kept by the real Sergeant Lamb of Britain’s Ninth Regiment sent from Ireland to North America to put down the revolution. The author, Robert Graves, is a historian. He fills much of this story with the actual history of events surrounding the American Revolution both prior to Sergeant Lamb’s arrival in North America (April of 1776) and during Lamb’s time spent of active duty prior to his capture in October of 1777. This effort by the author to insert actual historical events as if these are Sergeant Lamb’s impressions and opinions about those events overstates Lamb’s position in the army. It is very unlikely that Sergeant Lamb would have any in depth knowledge of those concurrent events and that takes away from the authenticity of this being Lamb’s story of his service in the British Army. I was expecting more of a story of Lamb’s actual experiences in the army and his participation in the British invasion from Canada inro America that culminated in the Battle of Saratoga. By having Lamb comment about things commanders and politicians were doing well outside of a sergeant’s prevue just didn’t ring true. Plus, some of the experience Lamb has in North America just stretch credibility too far. He has chance meetings with his female love interest in the most improbable times and places.

[Mike Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book in the hopes that it would be an "I Claudius" of the American revolution. However, this work lacks both the vivacity and the completeness of narrative arc of Graves' Claudius books. The writing is fine, though somewhat stilted in a manner entirely consistent with the period from which it is meant to be drawn. There are many amusing anecdotes and asides, but the narrative arc is somewhat lacking from a character standpoint.

The best thing about the book is probably the alternate view of the American revolution that it provides. While the protagonist is sympathetic to the cause of the revolutionaries (speaking of America as a grown son who should be allowed to leave the house of his father and make his own way), he is still a British soldier and a king's man. The accounts of well known American figures are therefore rather different from what you get in a US school. George Washington is spoken of as a proper aristocrat who has thrown in with the rabble for purely financial reasons. Benjamin Franklin is chided as someone who is using his position of international respect to peddle falsehood and propaganda. Benedict Arnold is portrayed as the noblest of foes, while Sam and John Adams are accounted as demagogues and fear-mongers, sort of the "Fox News" of their day. I found all of these descriptions perfectly credible and worthy of interest.

However, these are not characters in the book (with the exception of Arnold, who makes a battleground appearance). The main characters are less engaging than the incidental figures. For example, Richard and Kate Harlowe are probably the most important characters aside from the protagonist Gerry Lamb, yet they do not develop as characters so much as occasionally appear to remind the reader that they exist. Then there's John Martin, an ill favored fellow who is asserted to be the devil walking on earth, yet doesn't seem to do much of anything. He shows up now and again, everyone in the book feels apprehensive, and that's the end of it.

Most of the book is taken up with descriptions of military maneuvers and anecdotes of camp life. This is not as tedious as it sounds, but it comes close. I understand that there are more books in the Gerry Lamb series which might go further in describing the fate and influence of the characters, but since I still feel hardly any investment in them after 300+ pages I'm not interested enough to seek out further volumes.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some books are lifted up by great narration, and this is one such book.

Graves writes the story of the American Revolution through the eyes of an especially effective redcoat. Lamb is a swordsman, can read & write, something of a medic, herbalist, and he's a loyal Kingsman. Along with Lamb's adventures told in the first person, he offers his overview of the military campaign, and relates to the British readers his observations of customs, geography, and technology he observes in North America. Some of these "first hand" observations are written to amuse, and some are very funny, and others are to educate. I really did not understand what was meant by a "cartridge" for a musket, until the detailed description in this book. I did not know that North American Indians ice skated, used blow guns, drank a lot of tea, that some tribes ate the hearts of fallen enemies (cannibalism), or that wampum at this time was mass produced in Britain.

While the book drags in places, it's still very good.

[Steve Groves · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is somewhat of a slow burn at the start, with details of Lamb’s childhood and introduction to soldiering being less interesting than his character building in his better known novels. Once Lamb embarks for America, the pace and interest improves. I found the explanation of the causes of the war of independence interesting, and while coloured with his British point of view it does highlight the faults of both sides.

The description of the battles in Canada and then the Saratoga campaign is described well and helps understand the tactics and strategy. Graves utilises a mass if other contemporary accounts and information to flesh out the era.

I have the next book in the series in first edition, so will move on to that while the story is still fresh.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although Robert Graves wrote a whole series of novels about Sergeant Lamb, this is the only one my father had and the only one I've read thusfar. Ostensibly, it is the account of a British soldier in America, trying to deal with the pesky colonials during what became our revolution. As a perspective different than that of the secular religion taught in the schools, it is well worth reading.

[Rowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It certainly reads like a memoir, as Lamb spends most of his words on judging people with the benefit of hindsight and speaking well of his own actions. It's definitely pretty, well, 'fantastic' in places, but is a good book to read should one want to hear about the American Revolution from a somewhat unusual perspective.

[El Segoviano]

Aunque hace mucho tiempo que leí el libro tengo una ligera idea de su contenido y sobre todo recuerdo que el autor me gusto mucho.
Ha escrito temas históricos, prácticamente este libro lo es, aunque es mas conocido por libros relacionados con la antigüedad.
Murió en Mallorca en 1.985 y el libro en cuestión te enganchaba manifiestamente.

[Pau Cevasco · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't actually finish this book, it was not at all what I expected. I've read half of it and little about the American war. It dedicates too much time and words to describe inconsequential things.

May be the problem was that I was looking for something completely different, not lengthy descriptions of every day life at the time. Anyhow, I've given up on this one

[Gary Sedivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like well written historical novels - this is one. I am not familiar with the author, but will look up other books by him. This story is about the Revolutionary war, as told by a soldier who had served for Great Britain. It is apparent the author did extensive research, and himself being English, puts an interesting viewpoint of the war, of Colonists, the Indians, and warfare.

[Doris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lambs account

Interesting historical accounts which were written in a confusing manner. To sum it up the story was interesting, reading was a challenge.

[Elmira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scanned much of it. Didn't love it.