The Story of Marie Powell: Wife to Mr. Milton
| Company type | Historical novel |
|---|---|
| Industry | Literature |
| Founded | 1943 |
| Founder | Robert Graves |
| Products | Novel |
The Story of Marie Powell: Wife to Mr. Milton is a historical novel from 1943 authored by Robert Graves, inspired by the life of the young spouse of poet John Milton. Narrated through the viewpoint of Marie Powell, the narrative presents a critical and unsympathetic image of Milton.
In addition to Milton and Marie, the story incorporates real-life personalities like Edmund Verney, portrayed as Marie's genuine romantic interest.
Reception
Simon Brittan provided an overview of the novel for the Carcanet publication:
"Graves portrays [Milton] as one of the most detestable figures within English poetic history. Undoubtedly, his Mrs. Milton suffers under a genius swollen with pride. At their marriage, Milton's first wife was only sixteen. His initial motivation was her dowry, and when it failed to materialize, he revealed himself as an authoritarian prig, indifferent to her sensuality and pragmatic intelligence. Their union was also a spiritual mismatch: her Catholic faith clashed sharply with his convictions. The turbulent political and military upheavals of the English Civil War permeate her existence, bringing us close to events such as the execution of Charles I. The vivid depiction of daily life during this period and the ruthless characterization of young Milton are utterly compelling."
Geoffrey Wall described Graves's novel as "a relentlessly incisive satire on male self-importance." Matthew Adams highlighted that E.M. Forster regarded Wife to Mr Milton as an engaging read but believed Graves captured only one aspect of Milton’s character.
The book notably impacted English poet W.H. Auden, who frequently referenced it with lines like: "They tune the strings a little sharper at Cambridge."
On the other hand, James Macleod Sandison criticized Graves’s representation for reinforcing stereotypes of Milton as a stern puritan. Ian McCormick defended Graves’s approach, suggesting that his satirical simplification reveals wider concerns about egotism and ideological inflexibility—an issue also explored in Graves’s Antigua, Penny, Puce.
Originally published in 1943, the novel was reissued in 2003 within the 'Millennium Graves' series and subsequently by Penguin Classics in 2012 under the title Wife to Mr Milton.
Further reading
- Boldrini, Lucia. "(Im) Proper Wife: Robert Graves' Wife to Mr Milton." Focus on Robert Graves and His Contemporaries 2.4 (1995): 15–19.
- Franssen, Paul, and A. J. Hoenselaars. The author as character: representing historical writers in Western literature. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1999.
- Freedman, Morris. "Sporting with Milton." The American Scholar 67.1 (1998): 176–181.
- Joseph, Michael. "A Librarian's Stroll Through Milton's Afterlife." The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries 65 (2012).
- McCormick, Ian, "Graves's Milton" in New Perspectives on Robert Graves, ed. Patrick J. Quinn (Associated University Press, 1999)136–145.
- Murray, Patrick. "Milton as Myth: A Reassessment." Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 63.249 (1974): 59–69.
- Quinn, Patrick J. New Perspectives on Robert Graves. Susquehanna University Press, 1999.
- Robson, W. W. "FR Leavis 1895–1978." The Sewanee Review 87.3 (1979): 507–514.
- Steiner, George. "The Genius of Robert Graves." The Kenyon Review 22.3 (1960): 340–365.
- De Groot, Jerome. The historical novel. Vol. 10. Routledge, 2009.
- Hopkins, Chris. "Robert Graves and the Historical Novel in the 1930s." New Perspectives on Robert Graves ed. Patrick J. Quinn (Associated University Press, 1999): 128–35.
- Sandison, James Macleod. "Milton and the non-orthodox reader; chiefly a study of the human elements in Eden." (M.A. thesis, The University of British Columbia, 1953.)
- Schabert, Ina. "Fictional Biography, Factual Biography, and Their Contaminations." Biography 5.1 (1982): 1–16.
- Wall, Geoffrey. "Milton: Lives and Deaths." The Cambridge Quarterly 39.1 (2010): 89–95
External links
- Books and Writers – author profile
- Book review
- Husband to Mrs Milton – analytical commentary