Memoirs of Hadrian, Marguerite Yourcenar

Of late I have loved, loved Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian. I love writing translated from french - it resonates with my own "writing style." It is so easy to read. I love the complexity and grace of her writing. I finished it right away because it was so hard to put down. Even without a word of dialogue the memoirs read.... never fail to hold my interest for a moment, never lack for fascinating detail which I wish I knew more about. If I could write a book like that....

the most secret aspirations of a young man impatient of the present, uncertain as to the future, and thereby open to the gods. 56

The condition of women is fixed by strange customs: the yare at one and the same time subjected and protected, weak and powerful, too much despised and too much respected. In this chaos of contradictory usage, the practices of osciety are superimposed upon the facts of nature, but it is not easy to distinguish betwen the two. THis confused state of things is in every respect more stable than might appear: on the whole, women want to be just as they are; they resist change, or they utilize it for their one nad only aim. The freedom of the women of today, which is greater, or at least more visible, than that of earlier times is but an aspect of the easier life of a prosperous period; the principles and even prejudices of the old laws have not been seriously disturbed.... The weakenss of women, like that of slaves, lies in their legal status; thye take their revenge by their strength in little things, where the power which they wield is almost unlimited. I have rarely seen a household where women do not rule; ... In financial matters they remain legally subject to some form of guardianship, but in practice it is otherwise. In each small shop of hte Suburra it is ordinarily the .. wife who sits firmly ensconced in command of hte counter. 105