1AnnieMod
In May, we are going to get introduced to (or revisit for some) Marguerite Yourcenar.
A French author, born in Belgium on 8 June 1903, she had lived in USA since she fled Europe in WWII and where she died in 1987.
She was nominated for the Nobel in Literature in 1965 and she was the first woman elected to the Académie Française in 1980.
Another new author for me :) So... what do you plan to read this month?
A French author, born in Belgium on 8 June 1903, she had lived in USA since she fled Europe in WWII and where she died in 1987.
She was nominated for the Nobel in Literature in 1965 and she was the first woman elected to the Académie Française in 1980.
Another new author for me :) So... what do you plan to read this month?
2MissWatson
Her most famous book is Memoirs of Hadrian which I enjoyed very much. I have got L’oeuvre au noir on my list.
3VladysKovsky
I was hoping to read Memoires d'Hadrien in French but as this would be much slower I will instead contend myself with the translation by Grace Frick, which reads very well, I should say.
5MissWatson
I have started L’oeuvre au noir and it is slow going, as I need to look up quite a few things about the time period.
6MissWatson
Well, I have finished it, and I am sorry to say that I did not enjoy this very much. In the first part, we meet Zénon and his family. He is illegitimate and destined for the church, but breaks free and starts travelling across Europe, while we move from one family member to the next. This section felt as if it was going nowhere, his mother and his cousin die, his uncle is successful in business and at court, others live quiet, uneventful lives, but since Zénon knows nothing of this, why should it matter?
Then, after decades, he returns to his native Bruges and hides under a false name as a doctor in a hospice run by the Order of Franciscans, and most of the second section is about his conversations with the prior of the convent, his patient. Most of the subject matter here is philosophical, theological and rather obscure to me. Just like the references to his alchemistry.
The third section sees him arrested for his writings and we have the process in detail and finally his death. By this time, I was heartily sick of him and couldn’t have cared less what happened to him. He is such a cold fish that I never warmed to him, and his motivation in doing this or that was dark to me.
Knowing more about Flanders in the 16th century and about the intellectual concepts that he grapples with might have helped with understanding allusions and references, but probably not with the basic problem of indifference to Zénon as a person.
Then, after decades, he returns to his native Bruges and hides under a false name as a doctor in a hospice run by the Order of Franciscans, and most of the second section is about his conversations with the prior of the convent, his patient. Most of the subject matter here is philosophical, theological and rather obscure to me. Just like the references to his alchemistry.
The third section sees him arrested for his writings and we have the process in detail and finally his death. By this time, I was heartily sick of him and couldn’t have cared less what happened to him. He is such a cold fish that I never warmed to him, and his motivation in doing this or that was dark to me.
Knowing more about Flanders in the 16th century and about the intellectual concepts that he grapples with might have helped with understanding allusions and references, but probably not with the basic problem of indifference to Zénon as a person.
7lilisin
>6 MissWatson:
Sorry to see you didn't enjoy it as that is the one I'll be reading. Though I haven't started it yet and it might turn into a June read instead.
Sorry to see you didn't enjoy it as that is the one I'll be reading. Though I haven't started it yet and it might turn into a June read instead.
8MissWatson
>7 lilisin: It may have been the wrong time for me, I am not in the mood for long, difficult sentences right now (too much else on my mind), and there are too many of those. Especially the conversations between Zénon and the Prior got me lost. I was intrigued to learn that his name was Berlaimont, though: I know that only as the seat of the European Commission. There are so many names and places in here that rang a chord.
