Memoirs of Hadrian

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Marguerite Yourcenar

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2005, originally published 1951 (in French), English

Fiction

ISBN: 9780374529260

From the Publisher. Both an exploration of character and a meditation on history, Marguerite Yourcenar’s novel Memoirs of Hadrian has received international acclaim since its publication in France in 1951. Written in the form of a testamentary letter from the emperor Hadrian to his successor, the youthful Marcus Aurelius, the work is as extraordinary for its psychological depth as for its accurate reconstruction of the second century of our era. In it, Yourcenar reimagines Hadrian's arduous boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally, as emperor, his reordering of a war-torn world

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Isaac Mizrahi

On Isaac Mizrahi’s Book List

I stopped hating being an insomniac because of this book.

Carlo Ratti

On Carlo Ratti’s Book List

A powerful description of Antinopolis—a city created not for efficiency, politics, or commerce, but for love.

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