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''Memoirs of Hadrian'' () is a novel by the Belgian writer Marguerite Yourcenar about the life and death of Roman Emperor Hadrian. First published in France in French in 1951 as ''Mémoires d'Hadrien'', the book was an immediate success, meeting with enormous critical acclaim. Although the historical Hadrian wrote an autobiography, it has been lost. The book takes the form of a letter to Hadrian's cousin and eventual successor "Mark" (Marcus Aurelius). 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." 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. This intrigued her for what she saw as parallels to her own post-war European world.〔Yourcenar. Memoirs of Hadrian. English Edition. 2005. p. 319-320.〕 ==Writing of the Novel== Yourcenar first thought of the idea for the book between 1924 and 1929. She then worked on various drafts intermittently between 1934 and 1937. The notion of writing the book from the point of view of a dying Hadrian occurred to her after reading a sentence in a draft from 1937 stating: “I begin to discern the profile of my death.”〔Yourcenar. Reflections on the Composition of Memoirs of Hadrian in Memoirs of Hadrian. English Edition. 2005. p. 319-320.〕 She did not resume work on the book in earnest until December 1948. She states that while she based her account of Hadrian on the two most principal sources, ''Historia Augusta'' and Cassius Dio's ''Historia Romana'', her goal was to reinterpret the past but also strive for historical authenticity.〔Yourcenar. Reflections on the Composition of Memoirs of Hadrian in Memoirs of Hadrian. English Edition. 2005. p. 326, 329.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Memoirs of Hadrian」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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