Marguerite Yourcenar - Memoirs of Hadrian

I've recently discovered this novel by Belgium-born French author Marguerite Yourcenar who published Memoirs of Hadrian in 1951. The book is in the format of a letter from Hadrian to Marcus Aurelius recounting his life story.

Memoirs of Hadrian

In her magnificent novel, Marguerite Yourcenor recreates the life and death of one of the great rulers of the ancient world. The Emperor Hadrian, aware his demise is imminent, writes a long valedictory letter to Marcus Aurelius, his future successor. The Emperor meditates on his past, describing his accession, military triumphs, love of poetry and music, and the philosophy that informed his powerful and far-flung rule. A work of superbly detailed research and sustained empathy, Memoirs of Hadrian captures the living spirit of the Emperor and of Ancient Rome.

Marguerite de Crayencour (1903-88), who went by the inexact anagrammatic pen name 'Marguarite Yourcenar', was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist, the first woman to be elected to the Académie française. Her first novel Alexis was published in 1929; in 1939 she was invited to America by her lover Grace Frick, where she lectured in comparative literature at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. When Mémoires d'Hadrien was first published in 1951, it was an immediate success and met with great critical acclaim.

Paperback: Latest edition: 2000 Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 978-0141184968 Pages: 288 Availability and latest price on Amazon:

Kindle: Latest edition:2022 Publisher: Penguin Classics Availability and latest price on Amazon: