Literary Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar

[sun surfer]

This is the MR Literary Club selection for November 2015. Whether you've already read it or would like to, feel free to start or join in the conversation at any time! Guests are also always welcome.


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So, what are your thoughts on it?

[Bookworm_Girl]

Got my copy today. There are lots of pictures integrated throughout the book.

[Bookpossum]

You obviously have a posh copy Bookworm_Girl! Mine from the library is a Penguin with no illustrations at all.

[fantasyfan]

This seems to be a difficult book to get--and so far as I can see--there is no ebook available. Book Depository has it but it's a bit pricey. I'll see if I can get a library copy. It seems to be a fairly free form of faction and certainly gets some excellent reviews.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I bought my copy from Amazon. Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2005.

[sun surfer]

I ordered it a few days ago. I don't know exactly when it will arrive but I'm ready to start it as soon as it does.

[Bookpossum]

I have just finished reading this book - what a terrific nomination sun surfer! I was very impressed by it, both the beautiful prose and the immense scholarship which underpinned the work.

The Penguin edition I read also contains Yourcenar's Reflections on the Composition of Memoirs of Hadrian and in it she writes of retaining only one sentence from an early draft of the book, which was one which I noted as both beautiful and profound:

Like a traveler sailing the Archipelago who sees the luminous mists lift toward evening, and little by little makes out the shore, I begin to discern the profile of my death. (page 16)

This one I also noted and appreciated for its wisdom:

... each of us has to choose, in the course of his brief life, between endless striving and wise resignation, between the delights of disorder and those of stability, between the Titan and the Olympian ... To choose between them, or to succeed, at last, in bringing them into accord. (page 121)

And a quote from Yourcenar's reflections on writing the book:

A human life cannot be graphed, whatever people may say, by two virtual perpendiculars, representing what a man believed himself to be and what he wished to be, plus a flat horizontal for what he actually was; rather, the diagram has to be composed of three curving lines, extended to infinity, ever meeting and ever diverging. (page 284)

A wise and beautiful book. I kept being reminded of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (the Mark for whom the memoirs are written), and I can't give higher praise than that. Here is a quote from Book 8 of the Meditations:

The first rule is, to keep an untroubled spirit; for all things must bow to Nature's law, and soon enough you must vanish into nothingness, like Hadrian and Augustus. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are, remembering that it is your duty to be a good man. Do without flinching what man's nature demands; say what seems to you most just - though with courtesy, modesty, and sincerity.

[Bookpossum]

I'm attaching a photograph by Marco Monteiro of portrait busts of Hadrian and Antinous, side by side in the British Museum.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

...A wise and beautiful book. I kept being reminded of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (the Mark for whom the memoirs are written), and I can't give higher praise than that....

I wish this were available as an ebook from a reputable dealer. As I love the Meditations, I suspect I'd love this as well. The cheapest I can find it in paper is $8 ($4 used + $4 shipping).

[issybird]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I wish this were available as an ebook from a reputable dealer. As I love the Meditations, I suspect I'd love this as well. The cheapest I can find it in paper is $8 ($4 used + $4 shipping).

You can "borrow" it from the Internet Archive/Open Library, but reading scanned pages removes any pleasure I might take from a book.

I know I've got a paperback of this around here somewhere, but I've been unable to lay my hands on it.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I am really slow this month. Too much traveling! I have not made it very far. Unfortunately I think it's going to have to wait until I have time off work later this month.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I have finally returned to reading this book. I am just past Trajan's death. This book is best absorbed in small pieces. What a significant amount of research the author must've done to collate all the historical facts and set a specific tone throughout the narrative.

[Bookpossum]

Yes I agree. There is a vast amount of scholarship there, but she has done it so beautifully that it all lies behind the book and doesn't intrude itself.

[sun surfer]

This was an incredible book.

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

I was very impressed by it, both the beautiful prose and the immense scholarship which underpinned the work.

I agree; how much work must’ve went into this, and how successful Yourcenar was at being realistic to the time (as well as we know it anyway) instead of the writing being coloured by modern thought as most if not virtually all other historical fiction writing is.

A wise and beautiful book. I kept being reminded of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (the Mark for whom the memoirs are written), and I can't give higher praise than that. Here is a quote from Book 8 of the Meditations:

I’ll have to read the Meditations. Great quote, thanks!

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I wish this were available as an ebook from a reputable dealer. As I love the Meditations, I suspect I'd love this as well. The cheapest I can find it in paper is $8 ($4 used + $4 shipping).

I think you would like this, Tom.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I finally finished this book today. I can't believe it took me four months to complete! However for me it was best enjoyed in small doses. A brilliant masterpiece indeed! Such meticulous care for details that it astounds me to think of the research done by the author. Therefore, like Bookpossum I really appreciated the inclusion of Yourcenar's reflections on composing the book. Her comments that the book called out to be written as a memoir rather than journal gave me a new perspective. Also I found it interesting that she started and stopped and rewrote the book many times over decades and that she needed to do her own living to have her own experiences for reflection to be able to better absorb herself and write Hadrian's memoirs with a more convincing voice.

I found the subject matter fascinating because in 2014 I had the great opportunity to tour several forts along Hadrian's Wall in Northern England. It was one of my favorite sight-seeing trips that I have done in England. It was so amazing to think that you were standing on the outpost boundary of the Roman Empire - this side civilization and that side untamed, savage barbarians! I need to dig out my English Heritage guidebooks and browse them with different eyes after reading this book.

From that trip I was a little familiar with Hadrian and wanted to know more. I remembered from a video that we watched about the reasons he built the wall and his desire to have a reign of peace rather than continual expansion. The tour also emphasized how the Romans built to the same specifications across the globe. It was really cool to see with my own eyes how the remains of the Roman forts in England look so similar to the Roman ruins that I have seen Israel. Just one surrounded by green pastures and the other by mountainous desert.

I don't remember who nominated this book but give thanks anyway! It was a great choice!