Robert Graves's I, Claudius and Claudius the God were re-introduced to a whole new generation of readers by the famous BBC television series. But these classics are not the only, or perhaps even the best, of his many novels. The Golden Fleece, the story of the loss of the Fleece by King Athamas, and of its recovery by Jason and the Argonauts, has been described by Graves's biographer, and many others, as his finest novel, a thrilling and well-told story. In it we see vividly why Graves is in no way a conventional historical novelist. Although he is writing about a tale known to almost every child, he is the first to give it body and life. Who will ever forget the character of Hercules as he is portrayed here? Or the drama of the conflict between Jason and Medea? Graves, grounding his imaginative powers in sound scholarship, has provided a complete roster - and a perfectly rounded psychological portrait - of each member of the crew of the Argonaut (sic). The narrative, astonishingly transforming a myth into a convincing story of human beings battling for a lost treasure, never flags for an instant, and yet the reader is taken on a journey that is quite as much one of the imagination as it is of thrilling and meticulously described action. The Golden Fleece will appeal alike to lovers of Graves's fiction and poetry, of Greek myth, of legend, and of history.