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Showing posts from July 6, 2024

MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN BY MARGUIRETE YOURCENAR (PART ONE)- BOOK REVIEW

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Hello, dear readers!  I'm back with another book review and recommendation. Memories of Hadrian   by Belgian French author Marguerite Yourcenar is an extraordinary novel about  Roman emperor Hadrian.   Published in 1951, it won its author critical acclaim and was an immediate success. Originally written and published in French, under the title  Mémoires d'Hadrien,  it was translated to English in 1954 by Grace Frick, who was not only  Marguirete's lifelong translator but also her lifelong partner. Belgian born Marguerite Yourcenar became an USA citizen in 1954, the same year an English version of her novel was published. Marguerite  was quite an established writer,  the w inner of the  Prix Femina  and the  Erasmus Prize , and the first woman elected to the French Academy  in 1980. In 1965, she was even nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature. Surely, this novel had something to do with her success.  It is said that Marguerite envisioned this novel when she was about t