Monday, 14 September 2015

Memoirs of Hadrian – Marguerite Yourcenar



Yourcenar’s academic research in her early 20s led to the writing of one of the greatest books I’ve ever read. Mine led to a Ph.D. thesis that brilliantly passed, but that even I wouldn’t want to re-read. Something went wrong somewhere.

I have never been a fan of Roman history, with my hatred for Latin and all that, but reading of this time between paganism and Christianity when man stood alone and at the centre of everything was a breathtaking experience for me. Of all the books I’ve ever read about the antiquity, I always laughed at how staged and implausible the prose and the dialogues looked, but it’s not the case here – where there is no dialogue and the prose is lyric but flawless.

And reading through Yourcenar’s notes in the appendix made me jealous of her passion for her research, something that I am not quite sure I’ve ever had.

No comments:

Post a Comment