Richard Graves
Richard Graves was an English author and clergyman born in Gloucestershire in 1715. He attended Pembroke College, Oxford, where he developed friendships with notable literary figures, including poet William Shenstone. After earning his M.A. in 1740, he became chaplain at Tissington Hall and later served as curate of Aldworth, where he married Lucy Bartholomew against familial objections. Ultimately, Graves settled into the role of rector in Claverton near Bath, a position he held for life. To support his modest income, he turned to writing, producing a range of essays, stories, and poetry. While Graves enjoyed some popularity during his lifetime, much of his work has fallen into obscurity, with his most significant achievement being "The Spiritual Quixote," published in 1773. This novel serves as a satire of Methodism and draws inspiration from literary giants such as Cervantes and Henry Fielding, featuring a young squire’s adventures through the English Midlands and offering valuable insights into rural life and social customs of the time.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Richard Graves
Fiction Writer and Poet
- Born: 1715
- Birthplace: Gloucestershire, England
- Died: 1804
Biography
Richard Graves was born at in Gloucestershire, England, in 1715. At seventeen, he won a scholarship to attend Pembroke College, Oxford, where he became friends with the poet William Shenstone. He graduated in 1736, at which time he was granted a fellowship at All Souls’ College. He studied medicine but a nervous disease caused him to give it up.
Graves received an M.A. from Oxford in 1740, and became chaplain at Tissington Hall in Derbyshire after his ordination. This locale was to provide the setting for many of his novels. In 1744, he was named curate of Aldworth near Reading, where he met Lucy Bartholomew and married her over the protests of their families. Next, he became the rector of Claverton near Bath, a position he retained for the rest of his life.
He turned to writing to supplement his meager income. Graves, who is remembered as being kind and eccentric, became a member of the literary group in Warwickshire, and in time authored numerous essays, stories, and poetry. Although he was a popular writer, his work has, for the most part, been forgotten, with the exception of his masterpiece novel: The Spiritual Quixote: Or, The Summer’s Ramble of Mr. Geoffry Wildgoose (1773). This book is a satire on Methodism and was highly influenced by Cervantes’s Spanish masterpiece Don Quixote (1615) and Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews (1742). It concerns the trials and tribulations of Geoffry Wildgoose, a young country squire who tours the English Midlands, and the variety of comic characters he encounters. Besides its literary style, it remains historically significant for its descriptive accounts of British rural life and manners.