Memoirs of Hadrian Edition: Straus and Giroux (1990)

{ NOV 2021 - Verified ebook for complete book description, cover, table of contents, separation of book (front/ back matter, parts, and chapters), and epub format error checking. } Paperback, 347 pages Published: 1951 Edition: eBook source: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1990) Greatest Books (amalgamated list of best books) Original Title: Mémoires d'Hadrien Illustrations added from other eBook source Translated from the French by: Grace Frick This novel, unique in its approach to a figure from roman history, has had international acclaim from the time that it first appeared, in France. it has already been translated into fourteen languages of Europe and Asia. Written in the form of a testamentary letter from the Emperor Hadrian to his successor, the youthful arcus Aurelius, the work is as extraordinary for its psychological depth as for its accurate reconstruction of the second century of our era. The author describes the book as a meditation [...]upon history, but this meditation is built upon intensive study of the personal and political life of a great and complex character as seen by himself and by his contemporaries, both friends and enemies. Ina prose as firm as that of the great Latin stylists of his time, Hadrian's arduous early years, his triumphs and reversals, his gradual reordering of a war-torn world are reconstructed with an imaginative insight which only years in the company of the Emperor could give. Both an exploration of character and a reflection on the meaning of history, "Memoirs of Hadrian" has received international acclaim since its first publication in France in 1951. In it, Marguerite Yourcenar reimagines the Emperor Hadrian's arduous boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally, as emperor, his gradual reordering of a war-torn world, writing with the imaginative insight of a great writer of the twentieth century while crafting a prose style as elegant and precise as those of the Latin stylists of Hadrian's own era.