Writing historical fiction is fraught with difficulties. Thank you Hadrian, I always say as I stand beneath its oculus and marvel at the sweep of that gigantic dome.
We know Hadrian builder of the wall at the Roman Empire’s northern limit, creator of cities across the ancient world, and rebuilder of the Pantheon destroyed by fire. Then walk to Villa Adriana, Hadrian’s Villa, 300 acres of grass and scrub, and an occasional glimpse of a marble pool, a line of statues, a paved footpath. This intrigued her for what she saw as parallels to her own post-war European world.Take the metro from the centre of Rome to the Ponte Mammolo station, its final stop. Yourcenar noted in her postscript Carnet de note to the original edition, quoting Flaubert, that she had chosen Hadrian as the subject of the novel in part because he had lived at a time when the Roman gods were no longer believed in, but Christianity was not yet established. The emperor meditates on military triumphs, love of poetry and music, philosophy, and his passion for his lover Antinous, all in a manner similar to Gustave Flaubert's "melancholy of the antique world." The book takes the form of a letter to Hadrian's adoptive grandson and eventual successor "Mark" (Marcus Aurelius). Although the historical Hadrian wrote an autobiography, it has been lost. First published in France in French in 1951 as Mémoires d'Hadrien, the book was an immediate success, meeting with enormous critical acclaim. Memoirs of Hadrian (French: Mémoires d'Hadrien) is a novel by the Belgian-born French writer Marguerite Yourcenar about the life and death of Roman Emperor Hadrian. L’empereur Hadrien médite et se remémore ses triomphes militaires, son amour de la poésie et de la musique, sa philosophie ainsi que sa passion pour son jeune amant bithynien, Antinoüs. Le livre est présenté comme une longue lettre d’un vieil empereur adressée à son petit-fils adoptif et éventuel successeur âgé de 17 ans, Marc Aurèle. Yourcenar considérant le projet comme trop ambitieux pour être une œuvre de jeunesse, le décrivait de la trempe de ceux « qu’on ne doit pas oser avant d’avoir dépassé quarante ans ». Il s’agit d’une œuvre dont le projet remonte à l’adolescence de l’autrice.
Ces pseudo-mémoires de l'empereur romain Hadrien ont immédiatement rencontré un extraordinaire succès international et assuré à son auteur une grande célébrité. Mémoires d'Hadrien est un roman historique de l'écrivaine française Marguerite Yourcenar, publié en 1951.
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