Classics & Company: Memoirs of Hadrian Wrap Up Discussion 

Great to see your review on Memoirs of Hadrian! To quote from your discussion - I was “spellbound” by it. One thing I would add: I read it in French, and her French is just simply immaculate. It’s one of the best-written books in the French language I have ever read.

Thank you all for this interesting discussion🌷I saw the exhibition at the British Museum, of which Jen shows the catalogue. It was actually what prompted my second reading of the novel😊The third time was before a visit to Villa Adriana in Tivoli. It was also great to see the different points of view on Yourcenar’s work from an American vs a European perspective. I agree with Ann, in Europe Yourcenar is well known for more than Memoirs of Hadrian. She won some prestigious awards, among others the French Prix Femina for L’oeuvre au noir (English title: The Abyss). The story of Zeno, an alchemist in Bruges, Flanders, in the Renaissance. It’s on my TBR and I hope I’ll get to it soon. She was also the first woman to be elected to the Académie Française. Thanks, Ann and Micah, for creating the occasion for me to reread it… again.

I enjoyed this video! Did you all continue with Classics & Company? It's mentioned in this video that you planned on continuing but I cant find any new videos? 🙏

Amazed to find this on the very day that I was looking up reviews of MoH. I don’t feel it matters why Margerite Yourcenor wrote the book; it is just a stunning piece of literature and that is all we need to know. How, as a young woman, she is able to so brilliantly, if not perfectly, assume the mind of a sixty year old, dying Roman emperor is mind-boggling; and to do it with such intelligence and sentiment and maturity, not to mention such eloquence, leaves one somewhat bemused and perplexed as to how such imagination can be so magnificently executed.I don’t share Steve’s seeming grievousness beyond his own trouble with her portrayal of Hadrian which seems contrary to his own projection in his book on Trajan.

"A Blue Tale'

My little town in the mountains of Colorado is already proving Steve to be correct, unfortunately.

Physical books>ebooks, audiobooks