Take a photo of a barcode or cover
disappearer 's review for:
Memoirs of Hadrian
by Marguerite Yourcenar
When I finished this book, I wanted to worship it, cradle it in my arms to never let go. After I read a bit more of Marguerite Yourcenar, I wanted to worship her too.
This book is ten years of work that turned out to be a complete fictional memoir of the life of Emperor Hadrian. Yourcenar read all the books she could find about him, travelled to the places he visited, writing notes and then destroying them when they weren't enough.
And you can see all that work in this amazing book. It is almost a religious experience. You can see a life unfold before your eyes: a young man in Roman court that went to explore the vastness of the Roman Empire. It's not just storytelling, it is also a complex way of stating ideologic and metaphysical ways to see life and history. All this with a meticulous historical accuracy.
This book is one of the best historical books (fiction or non-fiction) I have ever read, hands down.
It is truly a journey into the empire, into history and, most of all, into a human being.
This book is ten years of work that turned out to be a complete fictional memoir of the life of Emperor Hadrian. Yourcenar read all the books she could find about him, travelled to the places he visited, writing notes and then destroying them when they weren't enough.
And you can see all that work in this amazing book. It is almost a religious experience. You can see a life unfold before your eyes: a young man in Roman court that went to explore the vastness of the Roman Empire. It's not just storytelling, it is also a complex way of stating ideologic and metaphysical ways to see life and history. All this with a meticulous historical accuracy.
This book is one of the best historical books (fiction or non-fiction) I have ever read, hands down.
It is truly a journey into the empire, into history and, most of all, into a human being.