Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar. First British edition 1955. H/C with jacket. 320 pp.

A lauded classic since its first publication in 1951.

The fictionalised autobiography of the Roman emperor Hadrian has received international acclaim since its first publication in France in 1951. In it, Marguerite Yourcenar reimagines the Emperor Hadrian's arduous boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally, as emperor. Hadrian writes this account of his life for the youthful Marcus Aurelius, his grandson by adoption. Marguerite Yourcenar spent several years systematically transforming herself into a vessel for the long-dead Emperor's spirit. She read every book still in existence that mentioned him or that he might have read. She visited the places he had visited, and touched the statues he had touched. Every night, she tried to imagine that she was Hadrian, and spent hours writing minutely detailed accounts of what he might have seen and felt.

First English edition 1955 by Secker & Warburg, London. Translated from the French by Grace Frick in collaboration with the author. Condition: Inside good. Gift inscription in pen on half-title page. Jacket very badly worn with a large piece torn from the front and back.