Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs recounted in the canonical Bible. The "Testament" adds that Reuben spies Bilhah as she bathes in secret; and that when she later becomes drunk, Reuben rapes her. That trope derives from a reading of Genesis 49:4, "wanton as water", as "wanton "in" water", taken from the Book of Jubilees. This theme is also in 2 Samuel 11:2's account of David and Bathsheba. The "Testament" portrays women as the cause of the downfall of the Watcher, and of man in general (excepting Bilhah, in accordance with "Jubilees"). Joseph is on the other hand portrayed as the ideal, for his resistance against
The Story of Marie Powell: Wife to Mr. Milton a characteristic that McCormick has also identified in Graves's "Antigua, Penny, Puce": 'Ultimately, Graves aetheticises history, politics and gender. there is a sportive element at work in his fiction which resists a permanent anchor.' The novel was republished in 2003 as part of the 'Millennium Graves' edition. More recently, Penguin Classics have published another edition of Graves, Robert. "Wife to Mr Milton". (2012) The Story of Marie Powell: Wife to Mr. Milton The Story of Marie Powell: Wife to Mr. Milton, by Robert Graves, 1943, is a 1943 historical novel based on a true story, the life of the young