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. ( )

"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, 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 ( )

Plume exquise! ( )

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. ( )

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..." ( )