Memoirs of Hadrian And Reflections on the Composition of Memoirs of Hadrian

by Marguerite Yourcenar (Author), Paul Bailey (Introduction), Grace Frick (Translator)

Paperback: 288 pages

Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (7 Dec. 2000)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0141184965

ISBN-13: 978-0141184968

Product Dimensions:12.7 x 1.6 x 19.7 cm

Product description

Framed as a letter from the Roman Emperor Hadrian to his successor, Marcus Aurelius, Marguerite Yourcenar'sMemoirs of Hadrian is translated from the French by Grace Frick with an introduction by Paul Bailey in Penguin Modern Classics.

In her magnificent novel, Marguerite Yourcenor recreates the life and death of one of the great rulers of the ancient world. The Emperor Hadrian, aware his demise is imminent, writes a long valedictory letter to Marcus Aurelius, his future successor. The Emperor meditates on his past, describing his accession, military triumphs, love of poetry and music, and the philosophy that informed his powerful and far-flung rule. A work of superbly detailed research and sustained empathy,Memoirs of Hadrian captures the living spirit of the Emperor and of Ancient Rome.

Marguerite de Crayencour (1903-88), who went by the inexact anagrammatic pen name 'Marguarite Yourcenar', was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist, the first woman to be elected to theAcadémie française. Her first novelAlexis was published in 1929; in 1939 she was invited to America by her lover Grace Frick, where she lectured in comparative literature at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. WhenMémoires d'Hadrienwas first published in 1951, it was an immediate success and met with great critical acclaim.

If you enjoyedMemoirs of Hadrian, you might like Robert Graves'sI, Claudius, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'A timeless masterpiece ... every page is informed by her profound scholarship'
Paul Bailey, author ofGabriel's Lament

'Yourcenar conjures worlds. She can make usshare passion - for beauty, bodies, ideas, even power - and consider it closely at the same time. She is that most extraordinary thing: a sensual thinker'
Independent on Sunday

Review

"If you want to know what 'ancient Roman' really means, in terms of war and religion and love and parties, readMemoirs of Hadrian." - The New Yorker --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Marguerite Yourcenar (8 June 1903 - 17 December 1987) was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist. Winner of thePrix Femina and the Erasmus Prize, she was the first woman elected to the Academie francaise, in 1980, and the seventeenth person to occupy Seat 3.