authors

Marguerite Yourcenar

• Mar 11, 2026 Memoirs of Hadrian By Marguerite Yourcenar There are basically two things about this book. On one hand: it is extremely well-researched, well-written, taken from decades of notes used to construct a book of a level of depth and richness which feels like it might be unparalleled in historical fiction. Maybe I don't read too much historical fiction (or for that matter non-fiction of this time), and Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy does maybe come close here, but it immediately captured and engaged me and felt overwhelmingly authentically about 2nd century Rome, and as if it were written by an elderly emperor & statesman. The story of a man, the story of a country, the story of a world that I do not know, just wonderfully portrayed.