#memoirs of hadrian

[alovelywaytospendanevening]

I made Penguin Classics covers for some old gay novels.

(Part 2)

[k-wame]

thought i was about to permanently lose myself to one man

[youuuuegg]

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[theodeckeronlyfans]

things i’ve thinking about lately

cy twombly, fifty days at iliam / anne carson, autobiography of red / marguerite yourcenar, memoirs of hadrian / enjolras and le cabuc, cannot find artist / jay deshpande, jenner, CA / mark vinz, a harvest / donna tartt, the goldfinch / hanif abdurraqib, … for this jukebox to not have any springsteen / barnett newman, lace curtain for mayor daley

[lxvxadrusxlla]

Finally one of my favourite books 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘪𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 by Marguerite Yourcenar will become a TV series and it will be Italian!

[danalidae]

Memoirs of Hadrian #38. Lyle Ashton Harris, 2002.

[bi4bihankking]

Memoirs of Hadrian Summary:

Fictionalized letter from the Roman Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 76-138) to his successor, the youthful Marcus Aurelius. Marguerite Yourcenar reimagines the Emperor Hadrian's arduous boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally, as emperor, his gradual reordering of a war-torn world

The Dread Nation Duology Summary:

The Civil War got wildly derailed when the dead at the battle of Gettysburg got up and started fighting the living. Uh oh! New problem! Now thanks to the Native and Negro Education Act the American elite can pay for protection from the infectious zombies around them. This will definitely be a permanent solution and never cause any problems and definitely not lead to rampant political corruption right?

[casaannabel]

[bluestangel]

Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar

[alovelywaytospendanevening]

The first edition of Marguerite Yourcenar’s Mémoires d'Hadrien (Memoirs of Hadrian, in English), released in 1951 by Librairie Plon.

[diotimas]

My favourite reads of 2022! These are in no particular order and come with the beginning to give you a taste of the style. The last one is my own translation from German, so all errors are mine.

Laura by Vera Caspary (1943): noir, crime, detective fiction

"The city that Sunday morning was quiet. Those millions of New Yorkers who, by need or preference, remain in town over a summer weekend had been crushed spiritless by humidity. Over the island hung a fog that smelled and felt like water in which too many sodawater glasses have been washed. Sitting at my desk, pen in hand, I treasured the sense that, among those millions, only I, Waldo Lydecker, was up and doing."

Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (1951), translated from the French by Grace Frick and the author: historical fiction, philosophy

"My dear Mark, Today I went to see my physician Hermogenes, who has just returned to the Villa from a rather long journey in Asia. No food could be taken before the examination, so we had made the appointment for the early morning hours. [...] It is difficult to remain an emperor in presence of a physician, and difficult even to keep one's essential quality as a man."

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (1954): fantasy, adventure

"When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bad End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton."

Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion (2021): essays, culture

"The only American newspapers that do not leave me in the grip of a profound physical conviction that the oxygen has been cut off from my brain tissue, very probably by an Associated Press wire, are The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Free Press, the Los Angeles Open City, and the East Village Other."

Dune by Frank Herbert (1965): science fiction, adventure

"A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. To begin your study of the life of Muad'Dib, then, take care that you first place him in his time: born in the 57th year of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV. And take the most special care that you locate Muad'Dib in his place: the planet Arrakis. Do not be deceived by the fact that he was born on Caladan and lived his first fifteen years there. Arrakis, the planet known as Dune, is forever his place."

Schachnovelle by Stefan Zweig (1942): philosophy, war

"On the big passenger steamer, which was set to leave at midnight from New York to Buenos Aires, reigned the usual business and movement of the last hour. Guests from the land bustled about to escort their friends, telegraph boys with crooked hats zipped through the society rooms calling out names, bags and flowers were being dragged about, children ran up and downstairs, curious, while the orchestra was playing unwaveringly to the deck show."

[youuuuegg]

[closetpoesieii]

“I have so often lost sight of Lucius, then found him anew in the course of the years which followed, that perhaps I retain an image of him which is made up of memories superimposed, a composite which corresponds to no one phase of his brief existence.” -- Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian tr. Grace Frick

[aliciavance4228]

[pisquareseven]

The Parthians feared us; we, in turn, held them in dread; and from the mating of our two fears would come war.