by Marguerite Yourcenar
My reaction to [b:Memoirs of Hadrian|12172|Memoirs of Hadrian|Marguerite Yourcenar|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1416448158s/12172.jpg|1064574] astonished and amused me: I'm not used to reacting to novels the way people react to [b:The Secret|52529|The Secret (The Secret, #1)|Rhonda Byrne|https://d....
"But books lie, even those that are most sincere. The less adroit, for lack of words and phrases wherein they can enclose life, retain of it but a flat and feeble likeness. Some, like Lucan, make it heavy, and encumber it with a solemnity which it does not possess; others, on the contrary, like Petr...
Excelente libro. Muchas reflexiones sobre la vida, la guerra, la paz, la política. La prosa es inigualable, bellísima, muy fluida. A pesar de que Adriano, el narrador, está al borde de la muerte, la sensación es de paz y satisfacción, no de desesperación o tristeza.
Wonderful book.I've already read it twice (Croatian and English translation) since I've first picked it up last September, and no doubt will I read it again few more times. Since I am bad at writing, I feel like I would have done great injustice to this book if I were to review it, so I can only hig...
”I was beginning to find it natural, if not just, that we must perish. Our literature is nearing exhaustion, our arts are falling asleep; Pancrates is not Homer, nor is Arrian a Xenophon; when I have tried to immortalize Antinous in stone no Praxiteles has come to hand, Our sciences have been at a s...
I have loved this book since page 5. It is unbelievably well written, it's a masterpiece by default, beautifully crafted to depict the life of a man who lived way before us.. and will live way after us. I don't know why this story makes me feel like crying. (I just finished it three minutes ago) I s...
This is a book that I don’t think I would have read if it weren’t for Goodreads. I probably would never have even heard of it. Technically, I suppose this obscure novel would be considered “historical fiction,” but that’s misleading. It is that, but it is also biography, philosophy, meditation, poe...
Truly an astonishing book, as those here (many) who have read it already know. It has nothing in common with the genre of so-called "historical fiction" (which misconception kept me from having even the remotest interest in this book for years). All I can add is the observation that her scholarship...
Charming fictionalized memoirs of the Roman emperor who was probably the most hellenophile of them all, who lived, loved and did things many of us do, but did them in a way few of us actually do. Excellent portrayal of the relationship between Hadrian and Plotina, Trajan's wife; I wish I read someth...
The Roman Empire, and other civilizations of antiquity (I like that word, it's grand), were what first propelled me to read more into history at a pretty young age. I read about the Ptolemies and Caesars alongside Encyclopedia Brown outwitting Bugs Meany (not that hard by the way). So when I came ac...
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