White is publisher of the Seattle-based Scala House Press. In this essay, White argues that while Graves's novel is well-researched and well-written, it does not deserve the critical acclaim it has received.

In 1933, Robert Graves and the poet Laura Riding Jackson were living on the Spanish island of Mallorca and in desperate need of money. Graves' brilliantly received 1929 autobiographical book Good-Bye to All That was a commercial success, but its royalties only helped Graves to get out of debt and set himself up for a writing life with Riding on Mallorca. So when pleas to friends, including the British poet Siegfried Sassoon, failed to rescue them, Graves turned to a project he had been working on for some time.

Written primarily for the money and referred to variously by Graves as a "potboiler" and as a "bestseller," I, Claudius was a huge success, selling out of three...