Memoirs of Hadrian

Esquire's 80 Books Every Person Should Read (80 books items)

"What's the world's greatest love story? Most people, pressed to answer this question, would probably not point to a fifty-eight-year-old Roman emperor's passion for a Greek boy, circa 175 A.D. Certainly not most French women writing in the 1950s. And yet, with The Memoirs of Hadrian, Yourcenar made exactly that case. And more: She collapsed time, showing how a man who lived 2,000 years ago thought and felt just as deeply as we do about big and little subjects, from diet to governance."