Marguerite Yourcenar

A selection of texts on art and artists by the Belgian French novelist and essayist Marguerite Yourcenar

Best known for her seminal novel Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), an imagined autobiography of the Roman emperor, Yourcenar brings the same depth of inquiry and inventive speculation to her lyric prose on art and artists in this newest title in the ekphrasis series. In these five jewel-like essays, Yourcenar meditates on the decay of time, the desire both satiated and refused by art, and the imagery animating the lives, works, and dreams of Michelangelo, Dürer, and Piranesi. And in an intimate mediation on the historical novel, Yourcenar describes her own encounters with how language and sound reveal the past. Together these exquisite essays explore that fundamental awe--perhaps even the terror--at the heart of an encounter with beauty.

An introduction by John Knight sketches the life of this extraordinary writer, and situates Yourcenar’s unique criticism within her attempt to capture the great struggle required to make an enduring work of art. Subtle and learned, Yourcenar’s essays are like stepping stones into the past and the shadowy business of artistic creation. Bringing back into print Yourcenar’s seminal essay ＂The Dark Brain of Piranesi＂ in the poet Richard Howard’s elegant English translation, conducted in collaboration with the author, this volume also collects texts from That Mighty Sculptor, Time (1983) into a particularly focused volume.

Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987) was a Belgian-born novelist, essayist, and short-story writer who became the first woman elected to the Académie Française. Educated in French Flanders, she traveled extensively before permanently settling in the United States and establishing her home, Petite Plaisance, in Northeast Harbor, Maine, in 1950. Her literary works, known for their classical style and psychological depth, often reimagine historical figures and eras, with Memoirs of Hadrian (1951) and The Abyss (1968) among her most acclaimed novels.

John Knight is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, TheParis Review, New York magazine, Nautilus, and Music + Literature. He holds a PhD in comparative literature and serves as the executive director of Historic Harrisville, Inc., in New Hampshire, where he lives with his wife and children.