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The French writer Marguerite Yourcenar devoted Dear Departed to her maternal forebears. In this volume the focus switches to her father's family in north-eastern France. A tumultuous history is revealed through the eyes of a remarkable gallery of ancestors: canonesses and matriarchs, statesmen and scoundrels, merchants and artists (Rubens had married into the family). However, the central story is of the turbulent youth, numerous affairs, desertion from the army and vagabond spirit of Michel show more de Crayencour, Yourcenar's father, who educated his daughter and fostered in her the intellectual qualities that are characteristic of her work. show lessTags
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"Recreating vanished lives and times...empathetic reanimation"
By sally tarbox on 26 April 2018
Format: Paperback
This is a very difficult book to classify. Primarily a biography of her paternal ancestry - even touching on autobiography towards the end- the author nonetheless moves into the realms of imagination and literature as she conjures up Northern France and Flanders back in the mists of time. Depicting a pre-human world; using her historical knowledge to describe the early peoples; and then drawing on medieval documents and old paintings to portray long-dead forebears, whom she fleshes out into believable individuals.
But the major part of the narrative concerns those whom she knew; her great-grandparents and their family. Here too, show more Marguerite Yourcenar draws somewhat on imagination and conjecture as she attempts to understand the motivations and mindsets of the players in her account, to give detail and interest to the great events of their lives. Thus she muses over photographs of her father, from his childhood , his middle age and latter years, concluding:
"The eyes of the child and those of the old man gaze at us with the serene candor of someone who has not yet joined the masked ball or who has already left it. And the entire interval between them seems a vain confusion, an agitation with no point, a useless chaos that makes one wonder why it was necessary to pass through it at all."
A thoughtful, intelligent but utterly readable and enjoyable work. Companion to Yourcenar's "Dear Departed", which trats of her mother's ancestry in similar fashion show less
By sally tarbox on 26 April 2018
Format: Paperback
This is a very difficult book to classify. Primarily a biography of her paternal ancestry - even touching on autobiography towards the end- the author nonetheless moves into the realms of imagination and literature as she conjures up Northern France and Flanders back in the mists of time. Depicting a pre-human world; using her historical knowledge to describe the early peoples; and then drawing on medieval documents and old paintings to portray long-dead forebears, whom she fleshes out into believable individuals.
But the major part of the narrative concerns those whom she knew; her great-grandparents and their family. Here too, show more Marguerite Yourcenar draws somewhat on imagination and conjecture as she attempts to understand the motivations and mindsets of the players in her account, to give detail and interest to the great events of their lives. Thus she muses over photographs of her father, from his childhood , his middle age and latter years, concluding:
"The eyes of the child and those of the old man gaze at us with the serene candor of someone who has not yet joined the masked ball or who has already left it. And the entire interval between them seems a vain confusion, an agitation with no point, a useless chaos that makes one wonder why it was necessary to pass through it at all."
A thoughtful, intelligent but utterly readable and enjoyable work. Companion to Yourcenar's "Dear Departed", which trats of her mother's ancestry in similar fashion show less
A história da família de Marguerite Yourcenar é brilhante.
Adoro como ela conta a vida de Michel-Charles, que teve dois nascimentos e duas mortes, e terminou a vida em tom menor, na sombra da mulher vulgar e voluntariosa, copiando cartas antigas porque talvez os filhos se interessassem por elas.
Mas o destaque do livro é, com certeza, o pai de Marguerite, Michel de Crayencour, aventureiro, sedutor, desertor, poliglota, erudito, libertário, errando pela Europa com as duas esposas [sic], o conde húngaro, o circo, qualquer um. É maravilhoso.
Adoro como ela conta a vida de Michel-Charles, que teve dois nascimentos e duas mortes, e terminou a vida em tom menor, na sombra da mulher vulgar e voluntariosa, copiando cartas antigas porque talvez os filhos se interessassem por elas.
Mas o destaque do livro é, com certeza, o pai de Marguerite, Michel de Crayencour, aventureiro, sedutor, desertor, poliglota, erudito, libertário, errando pela Europa com as duas esposas [sic], o conde húngaro, o circo, qualquer um. É maravilhoso.
Tweede deel van de autobiografie van de Franse schrijfster.
Dear Departed is book 1 about her maternal ancestors. How Many Years is 2 about her paternal ancestors. DD is 500 great books by Women. When she gets to her grandfathercand father it becomes more interesting. not much about her female ancestors.
La nostra storia è fatta dalle persone che l'hanno popolata prima di noi e che continueranno a scriverla. Più invecchio anch'io, più mi accorgo che l'infanzia e la vecchiaia non solo si ricongiungono,ma sono i due stati più profondi che ci è¨ dato vivere.In essi si rivela la vera essenza di un individuo,prima o dopo gli sforzi,le aspirazioni, le ambizioni della vita.Gli occhi del fanciullo e quelli del vecchio guardano con il tranquillo candore di chi non è ancora entrato nel ballo mascherato oppure ne è già uscito. E tutto l'intervallo sembra un vano tumulto,un'agitazione a vuoto,un inutile caos per il quale ci si chiede perchè si è dovuto passare..."
Jun 13, 2011Italian
Uitgebreide beschrijving van het leven van de grootvader en vader van de schrijfster. Schets van het burgerlijke milieu in de 19de en begin 20ste eeuw. Literair veel fijner dan de vorige romans
Oct 12, 2010Dutch
Plume exquise!
Apr 13, 2017French
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Author Information
A French novelist, playwright, and essayist born in Belgium, Marguerite Yourcenar was a resident of the United States for many years, living in isolation on a small island off the coast of Maine. Educated at home by wealthy and cultured parents, she had a strong humanistic background, translating the ancient Greek poet Pindar and the poems of the show more modern Greek Constantine Cavafy. She has translated American Negro spirituals and works of Virginia Woolf (see Vol. 1) and Henry James (see Vol. 1). Her novels include Alexis (1929) and Coup de Grace (1939). A collection of poems, Fires, was published in 1936. Yourcenar is particularly known for Hadrian's Memoirs (1951), a philosophical meditation in the form of a fictional autobiography of the second-century Roman emperor. In Germaine Bree's judgment, "With great erudition and great psychological insight, Marguerite Yourcenar constructed a body of work that is a meditation on the destiny of mankind." In 1981, she became the first woman ever elected to the French Academy. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- How Many Years
- Original title
- Archives du Nord
- Original publication date
- 1977
- Important places
- France; Belgium
- Epigraph*
- Première partie
– Τυδεΐδη, μεγάθυμε, τίη γενεὴν ερεείνεις ;
Óίη περ φύλλων γευεή, τοίη δέ ϰαὶ ἀνδρῶν.
Iliade, VI, 145-146.
– F... (show all)ils du magnanime Tydée, pourquoi t'informes-tu de ma lignée ?
Il en est des races des hommes comme de celles des feuilles. - Dedication*
- /
- First words
- In an earlier volume, meant to be seen with this one as the two panels of a diptych, I tried to evoke a married couple of the Belle Epoque, my father and mother; then to pass beyond them into time's upper reaches, toward mate... (show all)rnal forebears living in nineteenth-century Belgium, and eventually, with ever more frequent gaps and increasingly sketchy portraits, toward rococo Liege and even the Middle Ages.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The rest is perhaps less important than we think.
- Original language
- French
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 848.91209 — Literature & rhetoric French Literature French miscellaneous writings 1900- 1900-1999 1900-1945 Individual authors
- LCC
- PQ2649 .O8 .Z51413 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures French literature Modern literature 1900-1960
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- 338
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- 93,376
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (3.96)
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- 8 — Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 28
- ASINs
- 7
