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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
Perlas de tremenda belleza ocultas en un bosque donde es fácil perderse.
challenging
emotional
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
"Humanitas, Felicitas, Libertas."
Una grande e complessa opera questa della Marguerite Yourcenar sulla vita di Adriano, imperatore dell'antica Roma.
Ricostruzione che è un mix di saggio, poema e memorie, un lavoro svolto con estrema cura dall'autrice che ha impiegato anni per fare un'opera di enorme prestigio, va letto con attenzione, a volte ho fatto fatica tanti erano i concetti elencati e gli argomenti trattati perché complessi e variegati.
Adriano scrive una lettera aperta al giovane Marco Aurelio, dove racconta la sua vita senza veli alcuni, analizzando la sua opera politica, il suo amore per la bellezza, le sue debolezze, i suoi valori, il rapporto verso Antinoo, l'attrazione per la Grecia e verso tutti i suoi miti e la necessaria adorazione per gli dei che devono proteggere la sua missione: quella di far splendere Roma e tutto il suo impero.
Adriano un imperatore speciale, avanti per quei tempi, che è cosciente che prima o poi l'impero tramonterà, ma lui è chiamato ad agire nel miglior modo possibile, affinché il suo operato venga ricordato per la sua cortesia che è indispensabile, la sua deferenza, la sua compiacenza, la sua fermezza, la sua versatilità, la sua moralità, per creare un impero vastissimo dove i suoi sudditi siano trattati con Umanità, Felicità e Libertà.
"...l'essenziale è che l'uomo, giunto comunque al potere, in seguito abbia dimostrato che meritava di esercitarlo."
Delicato, fragile e poetico l'amore che Adriano prova per Antinoo, un giovane bellissimo che conosce durante le sue campagne in Asia, un fanciullo timido, ma anche ribelle, che non è mai completamente felice, nonostante tutta l'immensa passione che Adriano gli riversa, alla fine muore, suicidandosi e provocandogli un dolore inaccettabile, dal quale non si riprenderà mai più.
"...aveva dovuto credersi amato ben poco per non sentire che perderlo sarebbe stato per me il peggiore dei mali."
Un capolavoro, questo libro, che amplia i confini della cultura, della filosofia, della storia, un'opera necessaria al nostro bagaglio letterario.
"Thahit sua quenque voluptas (ognuno è attratto da ciò che gli piace): ciascuno la sua china; ciascuno il suo fine, la sua ambizione se si vuole, il gusto più segreto, l'ideale più aperto."
Una grande e complessa opera questa della Marguerite Yourcenar sulla vita di Adriano, imperatore dell'antica Roma.
Ricostruzione che è un mix di saggio, poema e memorie, un lavoro svolto con estrema cura dall'autrice che ha impiegato anni per fare un'opera di enorme prestigio, va letto con attenzione, a volte ho fatto fatica tanti erano i concetti elencati e gli argomenti trattati perché complessi e variegati.
Adriano scrive una lettera aperta al giovane Marco Aurelio, dove racconta la sua vita senza veli alcuni, analizzando la sua opera politica, il suo amore per la bellezza, le sue debolezze, i suoi valori, il rapporto verso Antinoo, l'attrazione per la Grecia e verso tutti i suoi miti e la necessaria adorazione per gli dei che devono proteggere la sua missione: quella di far splendere Roma e tutto il suo impero.
Adriano un imperatore speciale, avanti per quei tempi, che è cosciente che prima o poi l'impero tramonterà, ma lui è chiamato ad agire nel miglior modo possibile, affinché il suo operato venga ricordato per la sua cortesia che è indispensabile, la sua deferenza, la sua compiacenza, la sua fermezza, la sua versatilità, la sua moralità, per creare un impero vastissimo dove i suoi sudditi siano trattati con Umanità, Felicità e Libertà.
"...l'essenziale è che l'uomo, giunto comunque al potere, in seguito abbia dimostrato che meritava di esercitarlo."
Delicato, fragile e poetico l'amore che Adriano prova per Antinoo, un giovane bellissimo che conosce durante le sue campagne in Asia, un fanciullo timido, ma anche ribelle, che non è mai completamente felice, nonostante tutta l'immensa passione che Adriano gli riversa, alla fine muore, suicidandosi e provocandogli un dolore inaccettabile, dal quale non si riprenderà mai più.
"...aveva dovuto credersi amato ben poco per non sentire che perderlo sarebbe stato per me il peggiore dei mali."
Un capolavoro, questo libro, che amplia i confini della cultura, della filosofia, della storia, un'opera necessaria al nostro bagaglio letterario.
"Thahit sua quenque voluptas (ognuno è attratto da ciò che gli piace): ciascuno la sua china; ciascuno il suo fine, la sua ambizione se si vuole, il gusto più segreto, l'ideale più aperto."
Yo, Hadrian
When I learned the author spent over twenty years writing this book, I stopped feeling guilty that I took so long to finish it.
Hadrian, as I vaguely remember from Architecture school expands the Roman empire all the way to England.
At the beginning I really loved it. The emperor Hadrian is writing an end of life letter to his young protégé. He writes beautiful reflections about life and human relationships:
"Already certain portions of my life are like dismantled rooms of a palace too vast for an impoverished owner to occupy in its entirety. I can no hunt no longer...." (p.5)
But then, it is immersion in wars, invasions. Strange sounding lands, but many are not so strange, Alexandria, Jerusalem.
Hadrian's tactics of invasion and visionary leadership are just barely enough to keep me engaged. “…the clear-sightedness of Tiberius, without his harshness; the learning of Claudius, without his weakness; Nero’s taste for the arts, but stripped of all foolish vanity; the kindness of Titus, stopping short of his sentimentality; Vespian’s thrift, but not his absurd miserleness." (p. 167)
There is political good press of how he tried to be fair to slaves. There is love for other men.
The illustrations are weak black and white photos of old sculptures and murals.
I kept with it. When Hadrian’s beloved Antonius dies tragically, it becomes absorbing. Hadrian repeats sadly over and over A. is dead, A. is dead. Being an emperor, he can build cities and monuments and statues to this lost icon. It is a painful account, told from decades later. For me, this is when the narrative becomes a wide river and you can relax and experience it. Human sadness is the same now as then. In this way, the book is depressing because there is no peace in the middle east, not then when Hadrian fights wars with the Jewish tribes, or now.
In summary, I liked this book, but I found parts of it a bit slow going. Still, there were always great sentences to sustain:
"From time to time a servant would dip a great jar of porous clay into the cooling waters; even the most limpid verse lacked the sparkle of that clear stream." (p155)
When I learned the author spent over twenty years writing this book, I stopped feeling guilty that I took so long to finish it.
Hadrian, as I vaguely remember from Architecture school expands the Roman empire all the way to England.
At the beginning I really loved it. The emperor Hadrian is writing an end of life letter to his young protégé. He writes beautiful reflections about life and human relationships:
"Already certain portions of my life are like dismantled rooms of a palace too vast for an impoverished owner to occupy in its entirety. I can no hunt no longer...." (p.5)
But then, it is immersion in wars, invasions. Strange sounding lands, but many are not so strange, Alexandria, Jerusalem.
Hadrian's tactics of invasion and visionary leadership are just barely enough to keep me engaged. “…the clear-sightedness of Tiberius, without his harshness; the learning of Claudius, without his weakness; Nero’s taste for the arts, but stripped of all foolish vanity; the kindness of Titus, stopping short of his sentimentality; Vespian’s thrift, but not his absurd miserleness." (p. 167)
There is political good press of how he tried to be fair to slaves. There is love for other men.
The illustrations are weak black and white photos of old sculptures and murals.
I kept with it. When Hadrian’s beloved Antonius dies tragically, it becomes absorbing. Hadrian repeats sadly over and over A. is dead, A. is dead. Being an emperor, he can build cities and monuments and statues to this lost icon. It is a painful account, told from decades later. For me, this is when the narrative becomes a wide river and you can relax and experience it. Human sadness is the same now as then. In this way, the book is depressing because there is no peace in the middle east, not then when Hadrian fights wars with the Jewish tribes, or now.
In summary, I liked this book, but I found parts of it a bit slow going. Still, there were always great sentences to sustain:
"From time to time a servant would dip a great jar of porous clay into the cooling waters; even the most limpid verse lacked the sparkle of that clear stream." (p155)
I want to give this five stars, but it was a little slow and ponderous at times. Highlights obviously were Antinous, Yourcenar’s musings in beauty and love, and surprisingly, the notes about the writing of the book at the end. Very interesting, thinking of the lines between poetry and history (as she put it). Comparisons to Julian by Gore Vidal and Augustus by John Williams but I think she wrote a different kind of book, not better or worse, but quite distinct.
emotional
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
nothing i have read compares to this novel in its plunge into the depths of one man's desires, ambitions, philosophy and scope.
one major role of a historical fiction and its writer is to inspire their reader to turn to the seeds and sands of the past, leaf through its pages and explore what actually transpired, weave for themselves an accurate tapestry, as closely as possible. this means, however, not to reject inventions, for these are integral to a novelist, to a poet; but rather to embrace and understand the flourishes, the flights and the dives, keeping intact the historical backdrop, to grasp the very aspects of a character and culture that give them life and the touch of truth. at the same time, historical narrative inadvertently has its limitations, but an exceptional novelist paints upon that mechanical wall a rich mural, leaps over it sometimes, and often brings it down. here, [a:Marguerite Yourcenar|7732|Marguerite Yourcenar|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1655661586p2/7732.jpg] succeeds with soaring colours.
Hadrian (24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was the Roman emperor from 117 to 138, at a time when the classical world was slowly shifting over the undercurrents of a newer one. it was a time of great uncertainty: the roman gods had not yet faded, the philosophical and cultural traditions yet not abandoned; not had the christian faith been established. now, in this version by Yourcenar, the aged and ailing emperor lies on his deathbed. he writes to his successor [a:Marcus Aurelius|17212|Marcus Aurelius|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1430676293p2/17212.jpg], meditating his on military triumphs, love of poetry and music, philosophy, and his passion for his lover Antinous. he looks back and he looks forward: what his life held and what the future now may hold.
there are no dialogues, but in a manner reminiscent of [a:Gustave Flaubert|1461|Gustave Flaubert|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1651461896p2/1461.jpg]'s "melancholy of the antique world", the book is in conversation with the writer, with the reader, as much as it is with 'My dear Mark'. meticulously crafted, Memoirs of Hadrian is an entirely moving masterpiece where moments of being meet marked by a warm melancholic movement, giving way to a musical composition that has no equal.
one major role of a historical fiction and its writer is to inspire their reader to turn to the seeds and sands of the past, leaf through its pages and explore what actually transpired, weave for themselves an accurate tapestry, as closely as possible. this means, however, not to reject inventions, for these are integral to a novelist, to a poet; but rather to embrace and understand the flourishes, the flights and the dives, keeping intact the historical backdrop, to grasp the very aspects of a character and culture that give them life and the touch of truth. at the same time, historical narrative inadvertently has its limitations, but an exceptional novelist paints upon that mechanical wall a rich mural, leaps over it sometimes, and often brings it down. here, [a:Marguerite Yourcenar|7732|Marguerite Yourcenar|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1655661586p2/7732.jpg] succeeds with soaring colours.
Hadrian (24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was the Roman emperor from 117 to 138, at a time when the classical world was slowly shifting over the undercurrents of a newer one. it was a time of great uncertainty: the roman gods had not yet faded, the philosophical and cultural traditions yet not abandoned; not had the christian faith been established. now, in this version by Yourcenar, the aged and ailing emperor lies on his deathbed. he writes to his successor [a:Marcus Aurelius|17212|Marcus Aurelius|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1430676293p2/17212.jpg], meditating his on military triumphs, love of poetry and music, philosophy, and his passion for his lover Antinous. he looks back and he looks forward: what his life held and what the future now may hold.
there are no dialogues, but in a manner reminiscent of [a:Gustave Flaubert|1461|Gustave Flaubert|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1651461896p2/1461.jpg]'s "melancholy of the antique world", the book is in conversation with the writer, with the reader, as much as it is with 'My dear Mark'. meticulously crafted, Memoirs of Hadrian is an entirely moving masterpiece where moments of being meet marked by a warm melancholic movement, giving way to a musical composition that has no equal.