Memoires d'Hadrien / Carnets De Notes De Memoires d'Hadrien (Collection Folio (Gallimard)) [Mass Market Paperback]

In her notebook, Yourcenar quotes Flaubert: ' The gods were no more and christ was not yet. Therefore, there was a unique period in history, from Cicero to Marc Aurelio, where the man was alone'. It is in this context that Memoires d'Hadrian must be read.

The novel uses as device an Hadrian letter to his son Marc Aurelio, where the Emperor narrates the most significant aspects of his life. The narrative corresponds to a reflexion of a dying and very lucid man about his options and his encounters. The novel follows a structure that goes from the infancy of Hadrian until his final physical decadence (the last lines of this novel are: 'Tâchons d'entrer dans la mort avec les yeux ouverts...'. This phrase could be a motto for all the Hadrian attitude to the challenges of life (lucidity and fortitude). What is more interesting about Hadrian mood is the fact that his attitude allows him to be restrained in his actions without being paralysed into his choices(he acted with the utmost good sense considering the historical context).

The Yourcenar novel is sometimes criticized by picturing a very intimate Hadrian, losing the real one. I disagree: Yourcenar novel has the quality of sketching not a simple man of power at a certain period of history but mainly to give a picture of a human being that goes beyond any historical moment. Hadrian in confront with love and grief (Antonius episode) could be any one of us. His curiosity but at the same time his aversion and scepticism about religious propositions could be the mood of a sensitive character nowadays. Therefore, the novel (fortunately) erases some historical facts (e.g., the well known vindictive character of Hadrian). What is to consider here is the capability of Hadrian to handle a string of situations immersed into a world without strict references. Anyway the reader is not deceived concerning the mental atmosphere of the time. The moral strands of the period are observed with some sympathy by the main character. The conflict between the Jew and the Hellenistic cultures is always present. The culte of Mithra by the armies and the ascent of Christianism are also put on stage. The effects of this ascent are in fact remarked by Hadrian as a threat to the traditional civic and religious tolerance of the Roman society. It is at this juncture that the Emperor tries to live and to act with good sense.

The spirit that impregnates this novel is the need for any human being to put in proportion all the radical isms that are imposed over a society. Moreover, what is at stake his the fact that some mentalities and beliefs that became orthodoxies in a certain epoch are too much fragile to be considered as an absolute (any set of beliefs is in one way or another imposed through violence). Yourcenar gives to the reader the service, through the reflections of Hadrian, to remember him about that.

Notwithstanding the good translations, this is a master piece that can only be totally enjoyed in French: Yourcenar has an amazing poetic writting skillfulness that the French language captures as any other. So, if you can, I suggest you to read the original. It will be also an act of vindication of the need of a plurality of cultural approaches for which Memoires d'Hadrian is also an hommage.