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lucardus's review against another edition
4.0
Ist es mir zunächst manchmal schwer gefallen, den fiktiven Aufzeichnungen des Hadrian zu folgen, zumal dann, wenn Philosophen und Dichter erwähnt und bewertet werden, deren Werke ich nicht kenne und womöglich auch nie zu schätzen wissen werde, verdichtet sich das Bild des Kaisers immer mehr, um dann, dem Ende zu, eine emphatische Verbindung mit dem Leser einzugehen, die mich nicht mehr losgelassen hat. Dem klassisch mehr Gebildeten wird diese "Autobiografie" wahrscheinlich den letzten Rest Entzücken entlocken, der mir zu den 5 Sternen fehlt. Wer sich etwas mehr zutraut als zum Beispiel Robert Harris` Cicero-Trilogie, mag getrost zugreifen.
guillemette_gagliano's review against another edition
5.0
What can I add to what's already been said? Magnifique.
thomasr417's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
socorrobaptista's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.5
Uma interessante narrativa histórica sob o ponto de vista do protagonista, uma pesquisa exaustiva por parte da autora, uma boa leitura.
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
5.0
“But books lie, even those that are most sincere.”
It is supposed to be the historically most accurate novel - I can’t judge about that but I’m willing to take the word of knowledgeable people on that. What is so far more incredible is the way the author managed to make herself invisible in her work – you know how novels have their authors’ personality in them. You can’t normally come out of a novel without having some idea of the author’s personality. Narrators of Proust and Celine look like so much like their mirror images; in other cases it is true to a lesser extent – but not in this case. The only thing you will have guessed about Yourcenar by reading Memoirs of Hadrian, is that she is a genius.
If I believed in spirits, I could have asserted that Hadrian’s had possessed Yourcenear. An innocent reader can easily be led to believe that is written by someone who if not a king, is a really old man living in ancient Rome.
The narrative is the first person – so we enter with a bit of suspicion about the reliability but soon that suspicion is removed. Hadrian is old and looking forward to his inevitable death. I guess different people react differently at that stage – Hadrian has grown a bit distant from his own self – distant enough to look at his own self objectively:
“I have come to speak of myself, at times, in the past tense.”
Another thing which shadow of death does is that it makes the king of one of the most powerful empires look so much like an ordinary, powerless man.
Not that Hadrian is your regular arrogant kings. Besides the hard qualities of builders, soldiers, and generals that you would expect from a Roman king; he has the soft qualities of being knowledgeable, philosophical, lover of arts, at times poetical and perhaps wise; which we associate with people of ancient Greece – and Goodreads. His philosophical reflections and lyrical prose are almost seductive.
Rowling once said, "To a well-organized mind, death is but the next best adventure." That is Yourcenar 's Hadrian for you. The narrator impresses on the reader’s mind an image of a wise old man accepting his inevitable death with the confidence of conviction (rather than the arrogance of ignorance as is normally the case) and giving his last lesson (in most lyrical language) to his disciple; perhaps with one hand raised to heavens like in ‘Death of Socrates’.
Spoiler
I’ve whole pages of quotes from the book. The following are only a small sample:
“Morals are matter of private agreement; decency is of public concern.”
“We talk much of the dreams of youth. Too often we forget its scheming.”
“To me, who had not yet given first place to anything except to ideas or projects, or at the most to a future image of myself, this simple devotion of man to man seemed prodigious and unfathomable. No one is worthy of it, and I am still unable to account for it.”
“I knew that good like bad becomes a routine, that the temporary tends to endure, that what is external permeates to the inside, and that the mask, given time, comes to be the face itself.”
“I am not sure that the discovery of love is necessarily more exquisite than the discovery of poetry.”
bubblxgumwitch's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Tardé una barbaridad en leerlo y creo que me causó depresión.
giacomoskeate's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully written and does a fantastic job of portraying Hadrian as the complicated and layered character he likely was. The whole framing of it as an open letter to Marcus Aurelius creates some very moving passages and reflections on life, the responsibilities of leadership and death. Whilst it is ultimately historical fiction, Marguerite Yourcenar gives Hadrian a vulnerable yet strong voice that is unfortunately all too uncommon amongst leaders today.
achillesheeled's review against another edition
4.0
To the last, Hadrian will have been loved in human wise.
maybe i should actually read a biography of hadrian now
maybe i should actually read a biography of hadrian now
jasperge's review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes