1/22/2024 0 Comments Memoires of hadrian![]() ![]() It's best read during reflective quiet moments when one needs insights rather than entertainment. Thought provoking quotes permeate the novel like, "He had reached that moment in life, different for each one of us, when a man abandons himself to his demon or to his genius, following a mysterious law which bids him either to destroy or outdo himself." "I knew that good like bad becomes a routine, that the temporary tends to endure, that what is external permeates to the inside, and that the mask, given time, comes to be the face itself" "For my part I have sought liberty more than power, and power only because it can lead to freedom."With quotes like these, the novel finds strength in creating an introspective thought provoking story, rather simply innumerating the historical events of Hadrian's reign. ![]() Throughout her narration, Yourcenar (as Hadrian) assigns meaning and significance to the events and people of a time long past- a significance that's aptly valid for our thoughts and our daily situations. Yourcenar narrates as though she were Hadrian recalling his passing life. This book contains wonderous and perceptive insights. It is a psychlogically penetrating portrait of an outstanding figure in history a man who was able to capture the spirit of his time, which in turn has been recaptured by the genious of Marguerite Yourcenar. except in matters of love! His passion and tragic death of young Antinous reminds him that "love's play is the only one which threatens to unsettle the soul."It is history and story written with superb craftsmanship, the end result of painful and laborious 15 years of work and research. A lover of the arts, of Greek culture, of the occult, he was above all a pragmatic man whose motto was "Strength, Justice and the Muses." For him life was "like a horse to whose motions one yields, but only after having trained the animal to the utmost." His positive attitude in every life experience allows him to look back as a man fully satisfied. Hadrian was an architect of peace as well as buildings, he felt responsible for sustaining and increasing the beauty of his world, and his duties forced him "to serve as the incarnation of Providence," to the point that he felt he was indeed divine. Suffering from gout, knowing that his remaining days are few, Hadrian leaves a testimony of his life, his accomplishments, his philosophical outlook on life, and some pieces of good advise for his successor Marcus Aurelius. Narrated in the first person, it is the written meditations of a sick man who holds audience with his memories. Marguerite Yourcenar not only incarnates the soul and spirit of Emperor Hadrian but of his time as well (second century A.D.). Your tutors, whom I have chosen myself, have given you this severe education, well supervised and too much protected, perhaps from it, I hope that eventually, great benefit will accrue both to you and to the State.Seldom do we find a historical novel written with both so much scholarship and passion. Memoirs of Hadrian won the Prix Femina Varesco in June of 1952, one of the most prestigious French literary prizes, awarded by a jury of women, but not restricted to female authors. I desire, all the same, to instruct you and to shock you as well. There are 9,447 other movies coming out on the same date, including The Nightingale, The Rosie Project and Popeye. I do not expect your seventeen years to understand anything of it. Memoirs of Hadrian is coming out as a release To Be Announced (TBA). The truth which I intend to set forth here is not particularly scandalous or is so only to the degree that any truth creates a scandal. ![]() I told a few lies therein as possible regard for public interest and decency nevertheless forced me to modify certain facts. To be sure, last year I composed an official summary of my career, to which my secretary Phlegon gave his name. I propose now to do more than this: I have formed a project for telling you about my life. The written meditation of a sick man who holds the audience with his memories. Has become the diversion of a man who no longer has the energy necessary for the continued application to affairs of state it has become, in fact. Little by little this letter, begun in order to tell you of the progress of my illness. ![]()
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