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The Abyss
Complete dustjacket description (1976 FSG hardcover edition):
Marguerite Yourcenar's novel of sixteenth century Europe is, like Memoirs of Hadrian, essentially a meditation on the nature and condition of man. But unlike the Hadrian it is direct narrative, and is somber, even bitter in tone, portraying the struggle of a free mind in highly troubled times. The principal character, Zeno, typical of the leading intellectuals of his day in the wide range of his studies and activities, is botanist and physician, alchemist, engineer, metallurgist, and philosopher. In advance of the recognized science of his era, forced perpetually to thread his way between compromise and revolt, he is akin to his great historical contemporaries and near-contemporaries, the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus, the Spaniard Servetus, preoccupied like Zeno with studies of circulation of the blood, the Leonardo of the Notebooks, with their experiments and secret meditations, and that audacious but unlucky philosopher, Tommaso Campanella.
Born in Flanders, the illegitimate son of an Italian prelate, and reared in the household of his wealthy merchant uncle, Henry Justus Lire of Bruges, Zeno is destined for the Church, but he early abandons his theological studies in Louvain to seek for knowledge untrammeled by doctrine. Drawn to the subversive dynamism of medieval alchemy, he pursues that science host under the auspices of a high churchman in Ghent, and next with a learned jew of Leon, in Spain. He then goes to France to study medicine and anatomy at the ancient college of Montpellier. The practice of his various arts takes him across Europe and the Levant attending sometimes upon sultans and kings, and some times upon the poor and the plague-ridden, everywhere in danger in a world torn by war, and by religious and social upheaval. Often a target for jealous colleagues, he is suspect for the daring of his experiments, for his writings, and for his barely avowed atheism.
After the burning of one of his books in Paris, following censorship in Basel, that is to say, attacked by Catholics and Protestants alike, Zeno risks a return to Bruges for the first time in more than thirty years. Under an assumed name, Sebastian Théus, he carries on a charitable practice in the dispensary of a Franciscan monastery, the prior of which becomes a friend and, unknown to Zeno, a protector.
Certain secondary themes provide a muted counterpoint to the main theme of philosophic and alchemical quest: the power of gold or other wealth in the hands of merchants and financiers in the German States and in Flanders; religious revolt that sweeps Zeno's mother and his stepfather, Simon Adriansen, into the whirlpool of Anabaptism; the more secret revolt against restrictions imposed upon the senses, bringing a small group of monks and novices in Bruges to destruction; and political revolt in Spanish Flanders under Philip II, filling the roads with Patriots in flight toward England and the Netherlands. The same dilemmas and the same moral anguish which beset us still today are presented here for the years 1510-1569 as seen realistically from the perspective of the highway, the laboratory, the cloister, shop, or tavern, and finally as seen from prison.
Both as physician and as philosopher Zeno seeks to comprehend the very components of body and soul, tracing substance itself to its particles moving in time and in space. The mental experiment is dangerous, as the ancient alchemists knew, it involves destruction of all preconceived ideas and prejudices, even the notion of the self, and constitutes the first and most difficult phase of the Great Transmutation, the Black Phase of the Process (from which the French text takes its title, L'Oeuvre au Noir). By the intensity of his experience, both physical and spiritual, Zeno achieves his goal, even though his unquenchable desire to explore the confines of this our prison brings the inevitable confrontation that leads to his death.
No living writer can quite compare with Marguerite Yourcenar in intellectual richness and range of human sympathy. In its adherence to historic and human truth the novel is overwhelming.
Marguerite Yourcenar's novel of sixteenth century Europe is, like Memoirs of Hadrian, essentially a meditation on the nature and condition of man. But unlike the Hadrian it is direct narrative, and is somber, even bitter in tone, portraying the struggle of a free mind in highly troubled times. The principal character, Zeno, typical of the leading intellectuals of his day in the wide range of his studies and activities, is botanist and physician, alchemist, engineer, metallurgist, and philosopher. In advance of the recognized science of his era, forced perpetually to thread his way between compromise and revolt, he is akin to his great historical contemporaries and near-contemporaries, the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus, the Spaniard Servetus, preoccupied like Zeno with studies of circulation of the blood, the Leonardo of the Notebooks, with their experiments and secret meditations, and that audacious but unlucky philosopher, Tommaso Campanella.
Born in Flanders, the illegitimate son of an Italian prelate, and reared in the household of his wealthy merchant uncle, Henry Justus Lire of Bruges, Zeno is destined for the Church, but he early abandons his theological studies in Louvain to seek for knowledge untrammeled by doctrine. Drawn to the subversive dynamism of medieval alchemy, he pursues that science host under the auspices of a high churchman in Ghent, and next with a learned jew of Leon, in Spain. He then goes to France to study medicine and anatomy at the ancient college of Montpellier. The practice of his various arts takes him across Europe and the Levant attending sometimes upon sultans and kings, and some times upon the poor and the plague-ridden, everywhere in danger in a world torn by war, and by religious and social upheaval. Often a target for jealous colleagues, he is suspect for the daring of his experiments, for his writings, and for his barely avowed atheism.
After the burning of one of his books in Paris, following censorship in Basel, that is to say, attacked by Catholics and Protestants alike, Zeno risks a return to Bruges for the first time in more than thirty years. Under an assumed name, Sebastian Théus, he carries on a charitable practice in the dispensary of a Franciscan monastery, the prior of which becomes a friend and, unknown to Zeno, a protector.
Certain secondary themes provide a muted counterpoint to the main theme of philosophic and alchemical quest: the power of gold or other wealth in the hands of merchants and financiers in the German States and in Flanders; religious revolt that sweeps Zeno's mother and his stepfather, Simon Adriansen, into the whirlpool of Anabaptism; the more secret revolt against restrictions imposed upon the senses, bringing a small group of monks and novices in Bruges to destruction; and political revolt in Spanish Flanders under Philip II, filling the roads with Patriots in flight toward England and the Netherlands. The same dilemmas and the same moral anguish which beset us still today are presented here for the years 1510-1569 as seen realistically from the perspective of the highway, the laboratory, the cloister, shop, or tavern, and finally as seen from prison.
Both as physician and as philosopher Zeno seeks to comprehend the very components of body and soul, tracing substance itself to its particles moving in time and in space. The mental experiment is dangerous, as the ancient alchemists knew, it involves destruction of all preconceived ideas and prejudices, even the notion of the self, and constitutes the first and most difficult phase of the Great Transmutation, the Black Phase of the Process (from which the French text takes its title, L'Oeuvre au Noir). By the intensity of his experience, both physical and spiritual, Zeno achieves his goal, even though his unquenchable desire to explore the confines of this our prison brings the inevitable confrontation that leads to his death.
No living writer can quite compare with Marguerite Yourcenar in intellectual richness and range of human sympathy. In its adherence to historic and human truth the novel is overwhelming.
374 pages, Paperback
First published May 8, 1968
452 people are currently reading
9,175 people want to read
About the author
Marguerite Yourcenar
217books1,548followersMarguerite Yourcenar, original name Marguerite de Crayencour, was a french novelist, essayist, poet and short-story writer who became the first woman to be elected to the Académie Française (French Academy), an exclusive literary institution with a membership limited to 40.
She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1947. The name “Yourcenar� is an imperfect anagram of her original name, “Crayencour.�
Yourcenar’s literary works are notable for their rigorously classical style, their erudition, and their psychological subtlety. In her most important books she re-creates past eras and personages, meditating thereby on human destiny, morality, and power. Her masterpiece is Mémoires d'Hadrien, a historical novel constituting the fictionalized memoirs of that 2nd-century Roman emperor. Her works were translated by the American Grace Frick, Yourcenar’s secretary and life companion.
Yourcenar was also a literary critic and translator.
She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1947. The name “Yourcenar� is an imperfect anagram of her original name, “Crayencour.�
Yourcenar’s literary works are notable for their rigorously classical style, their erudition, and their psychological subtlety. In her most important books she re-creates past eras and personages, meditating thereby on human destiny, morality, and power. Her masterpiece is Mémoires d'Hadrien, a historical novel constituting the fictionalized memoirs of that 2nd-century Roman emperor. Her works were translated by the American Grace Frick, Yourcenar’s secretary and life companion.
Yourcenar was also a literary critic and translator.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 461 reviews
February 17, 2023
For no one is free so long as he has desires, wants, or fears, or even, perhaps, so long as he lives.
The Bruges physician, alchemist and philosopher Zeno is a searching, free spirit. His life story is the leitmotif in an epic chronicle of Europe ravaged by religious wars and burning of persons judged to be heretics. Travelling and fleeing, Zeno tries to survive in the turbulent and chaotic 16th century.
Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987, who made it to the first female member of the Académie Française in 1980, modelled Zeno from an amalgam of the lives of Giordano Bruno, Paracelsus, Da Vinci and Copernicus. Yourcenar depicts Zeno so real and lifelike that it would be impossible to not close him into the heart, taking the reader on a philosophical journey through time in his compelling company.
Men is niet vrij zolang men begeert, zolang men wil, zolang men vreest, misschien zolang men leeft.
De Brugse arts, alchemist en filosoof Zeno is een zoekende, vrije geest. Zijn levensverhaal vormt het leidmotief in een epische kroniek van het door godsdienstoorlogen en ketterverbrandingen geteisterde Europa. Reizend en vluchtend tracht Zeno in de woelige en chaotische 16de eeuw te overleven.
Yourcenar, die het in 1980 tot eerste vrouwelijk lid van de Académie Française schopte, boetseerde Zeno uit een amalgaam van de levens van Giordano Bruno, Paracelsus, Da Vinci en Copernicus. Toch is Zeno zo overtuigend en levensecht dat je hem gaandeweg in je hart sluit. Een filosofische tijdreis in fascinerend gezelschap.
The Bruges physician, alchemist and philosopher Zeno is a searching, free spirit. His life story is the leitmotif in an epic chronicle of Europe ravaged by religious wars and burning of persons judged to be heretics. Travelling and fleeing, Zeno tries to survive in the turbulent and chaotic 16th century.
Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987, who made it to the first female member of the Académie Française in 1980, modelled Zeno from an amalgam of the lives of Giordano Bruno, Paracelsus, Da Vinci and Copernicus. Yourcenar depicts Zeno so real and lifelike that it would be impossible to not close him into the heart, taking the reader on a philosophical journey through time in his compelling company.
Men is niet vrij zolang men begeert, zolang men wil, zolang men vreest, misschien zolang men leeft.
De Brugse arts, alchemist en filosoof Zeno is een zoekende, vrije geest. Zijn levensverhaal vormt het leidmotief in een epische kroniek van het door godsdienstoorlogen en ketterverbrandingen geteisterde Europa. Reizend en vluchtend tracht Zeno in de woelige en chaotische 16de eeuw te overleven.
Yourcenar, die het in 1980 tot eerste vrouwelijk lid van de Académie Française schopte, boetseerde Zeno uit een amalgaam van de levens van Giordano Bruno, Paracelsus, Da Vinci en Copernicus. Toch is Zeno zo overtuigend en levensecht dat je hem gaandeweg in je hart sluit. Een filosofische tijdreis in fascinerend gezelschap.
May 13, 2023
Romanul consemnează biografia unui savant din epoca Reformei. Ceea ce-l definește pe Zénon Ligre, înainte de orice, este o curiozitate febrilă, „libido sciendi�. Este cărturar, alchimist, medic (mai ales, medic), inventator de mașini de război, autor de cărți „eretice�, filosof. Vrea să afle tot, să noteze tot, să-și explice tot, călătorește pretutindeni, este ba în slujba sultanului, ba sub protecția unui episcop influent, ba în Spania, ba în Țările de Jos, ba în ținuturile nemțești, n-are rădăcini. Un individ plin de nedumeriri caută ceva și, adesea, nu știe nici el cu acuratețe ce caută. Ar vrea să cunoască tot și își dă seama că nu va afla mai nimic. Adevărul e o himeră, va muri ca orice ignorant, ca orice ins banal, lipsit de certitudini...
În schimb, ceea ce nu știe precis (dar bănuiește) este că Sfîntul Oficiu, altfel zis, Inchiziția, îi contabilizează fiece pas. Inevitabil, în amurgul vieții, Zénon ajunge în temniță, pentru o vină mai degrabă imprecisă. Ar putea să fugă, dar nu vrea, se simte prea obosit, percepe zădărnicia vieții, sfîrșitul nu-l sperie. Este condamnat la moarte pe rug. În noaptea premergătoare supliciului, își deschide venele.
Aș adăuga un pasaj în ton cu vremurile pe care le trăim:
„Venită din Orient, ciuma intra în Germania prin Bohemia. Călătorea fără grabă, însoțită de dangătul clopotelor... Aplecîndu-se peste paharul bețivului, stingînd lumînarea învățatului ce stătea printre cărțile lui, slujind liturghia alături de preot, ascunzîndu-se ca un purice în cămașa dezmățatelor, ciuma aducea în viața tuturor un element de nerușinată egalitate, fermentul unei aspre și primejdioase aventuri� (pp.77-78).
Piatra filosofală trebuie, așadar, trecută în lista cărților despre epidemii. Nu mă sfiesc s-o spun, dar este neîndoielnic o cxapodoperă.
March 19, 2025
A few hastily swallowed books had forged my pride, and I boasted of learning. I thought I was armed to challenge Marguerite Yourcenar. Her "look" of the country peasant did not impress the young rooster that I am in literature.
I still had to raise my eyes a little with Hadrian's Memoirs and, simultaneously, measure the shadow that spread over my certainty of the size of its author. But be it, this openness to antiquity had put me in the balm.
With Zeno, the hero of this book, I pursued my showdown with the monster of learning. Through the chapters, I shared the nomadic life of the alchemist. He chased by obscurantism of a religion which admits neither competition nor contradiction, me by same demons as those which led me on the ways of truancy.
I realize very quickly that Marguerite Yourcenar has set the bar very high. In this work, she also mentions many ancient celebrities who are unknown to me, and loneliness embraces me in this crowded world. I perceive only coldness among Zeno's contemporaries. It must also be said that we are convinced of a faith foreign to us today. They can advance towards the stake with less trouble than I can towards the dentist's seat.
Zeno dreams of freedom, the very one that makes us today challenge the laws of nature. The philosopher finds compensation for his deprivation of wisdom. He is a great observer of his time. His point of view gives Marguerite Yourcenar a pretext to develop his own on this intractable era toward those who would dare to argue that the earth revolves around the sun.
He is an alchemist who believes in the immanence of matter, the transmutation of lead into gold. Despite the efforts of science to convince us of the decoy, this foolish dream remained for us. But games of chance have replaced lead in an even more subtle alchemy of which we know the beneficiary.
A doctor, Zenon, becomes realistic again. The most exceptional quality of such a practitioner is fatalism; he detects a prime reason for suffering punishment in illness. For us, the rejection of pain has become a requirement.
Humanists, he regrets, however, what men do with their lives. The hopes it draws from its frenzied idealism will defeat a religion that governs the minds of this XVIth century in Europe. However, he rejects the monopoly on truth: "I took care not to make an idol of truth, preferring to leave it with its more humble name of accuracy."
Only a fictional character could combine many qualities that are sometimes challenging to coexist in the same spirit. However, it is custom-built, and thus, it gives Marguerite Yourcenar the field to develop what her fertile mind can concoct to get her message across.
If it is true that the alchemical quest begins with introspection, this work sent me back to my shortcomings. It's a work capable of bringing humility to those who would like to boast of a culture they do not have. At the end of such a work, it will inevitably dethrone. I will not say that this reading filled me with happiness. It loaded each page with many volumes ingested by its author to sculpt each sentence, my frail shoulders bent.
Here I am, upset at the end of my grip. Once again, I could only measure the height of the mountain whose summit had been lost in the clouds. Yet, here I am reinforced in my conviction to persevere in filling what the dissipations of my universities could make me accumulate gaps.
The mischievous smile fixed on the mask of the one I saw as a peasant of the soil made me understand the inequality of the fight. When you can't shoot your enemy, kiss them. Marguerite, I love you a little, a lot, madly. Even if you are severely affected by my poor discernment, I remain a handsome player.
I still had to raise my eyes a little with Hadrian's Memoirs and, simultaneously, measure the shadow that spread over my certainty of the size of its author. But be it, this openness to antiquity had put me in the balm.
With Zeno, the hero of this book, I pursued my showdown with the monster of learning. Through the chapters, I shared the nomadic life of the alchemist. He chased by obscurantism of a religion which admits neither competition nor contradiction, me by same demons as those which led me on the ways of truancy.
I realize very quickly that Marguerite Yourcenar has set the bar very high. In this work, she also mentions many ancient celebrities who are unknown to me, and loneliness embraces me in this crowded world. I perceive only coldness among Zeno's contemporaries. It must also be said that we are convinced of a faith foreign to us today. They can advance towards the stake with less trouble than I can towards the dentist's seat.
Zeno dreams of freedom, the very one that makes us today challenge the laws of nature. The philosopher finds compensation for his deprivation of wisdom. He is a great observer of his time. His point of view gives Marguerite Yourcenar a pretext to develop his own on this intractable era toward those who would dare to argue that the earth revolves around the sun.
He is an alchemist who believes in the immanence of matter, the transmutation of lead into gold. Despite the efforts of science to convince us of the decoy, this foolish dream remained for us. But games of chance have replaced lead in an even more subtle alchemy of which we know the beneficiary.
A doctor, Zenon, becomes realistic again. The most exceptional quality of such a practitioner is fatalism; he detects a prime reason for suffering punishment in illness. For us, the rejection of pain has become a requirement.
Humanists, he regrets, however, what men do with their lives. The hopes it draws from its frenzied idealism will defeat a religion that governs the minds of this XVIth century in Europe. However, he rejects the monopoly on truth: "I took care not to make an idol of truth, preferring to leave it with its more humble name of accuracy."
Only a fictional character could combine many qualities that are sometimes challenging to coexist in the same spirit. However, it is custom-built, and thus, it gives Marguerite Yourcenar the field to develop what her fertile mind can concoct to get her message across.
If it is true that the alchemical quest begins with introspection, this work sent me back to my shortcomings. It's a work capable of bringing humility to those who would like to boast of a culture they do not have. At the end of such a work, it will inevitably dethrone. I will not say that this reading filled me with happiness. It loaded each page with many volumes ingested by its author to sculpt each sentence, my frail shoulders bent.
Here I am, upset at the end of my grip. Once again, I could only measure the height of the mountain whose summit had been lost in the clouds. Yet, here I am reinforced in my conviction to persevere in filling what the dissipations of my universities could make me accumulate gaps.
The mischievous smile fixed on the mask of the one I saw as a peasant of the soil made me understand the inequality of the fight. When you can't shoot your enemy, kiss them. Marguerite, I love you a little, a lot, madly. Even if you are severely affected by my poor discernment, I remain a handsome player.
April 7, 2022
# bibliotecaafectiva
Am prezentat cartea în altă parte, la o ediție mai veche. Dacă ar fi să aleg un episod memorabil, o scenă (și numai una), din romanul lui Marguerite Yourcenar (1903 - 1987), știu cu precizie ce-aș alege...
M-aș opri la întîlnirea dintre Zénon Ligre și Martha Adriansen. Sînt frați vitregi, Martha este sora lui mai mică, dinspre mamă, dar ei nu știu asta, viața i-a despărțit, fiecare cu destinul lui, cu drumul lui. Prima și ultima lor întîlnire are loc în timpul unei epidemii de ciumă, în Köln. Zénon sosește în oraș pentru a „cerceta manifestările bolii�. Îi tratează pe suferinzi, intră în locuințele lor mizere, își riscă viața. Curiozitatea lui ascuțită înfrînge orice teamă. Ajunge și în casa în care locuiește sora lui, chemat chiar de ea.
Iată cum îl vede Martha: „A întrebat dacă aceea e casa Fuggers și a intrat fără temenele. Era un bărbat slab și înalt, cu ochii duși în fundul capului, înveșmîntat în mantia roșie a medicilor care au primit să-i îngrijească pe ciumați... Chipul său oacheș îi dădea înfățișarea unui străin. A urcat repede scara�.
Zénon merge la patul în care se chinuie Bénédicte, vara Marthei. Observă imediat că bolnava trage să moară. Urmează un scurt dialog:
�- Non est medicamentum [Nu există leac]... Forța vitală a surorii dumitale a secat. Putem cel mult să-i alinăm suferința...
- Nu sînt sora ei, se împotrivi deodată Martha... Mă numesc Martha Adriansen, nu Martha Fuggers. Sînt verișoara ei.
Medicul n-a învrednicit-o decît cu o singură privire și apoi s-a cufundat în cercetarea urmărilor leacului. Bolnava, mai liniștită, zîmbea parcă...
- Zici că te cheamă Martha Adriansen, spuse el fără veste. Am cunoscut în tinerețea mea un bărbat destul de vîrstnic ce purta acest nume. Pe soția lui o chema Hilzonde.
- Erau tatăl și mama mea, răspunse Martha aproape în silă.
- Mai trăiesc?
- Nu, zise ea mai încet. Erau la Münster cînd episcopul a cucerit orașul...�.
Medicul vrea să plece. Martha scoate un ban de aur. I-l dă fiindcă s-a simțit umilită, ea s-a temut de moarte, el nu. Ea trăiește în lumea celor avuți, el este un simplu medic rătăcitor, fără căpătîi. Indiferent, Zénon primește plata: „Faptul de a-l plăti restabilea distanța dintre ei... Fără să se uite la ea, medicul a vîrît banul în buzunarul mantiei și a ieșit�.
Frații se întîlnesc, dar Zénon nu-și divulgă identitatea. Oare de ce? Zénon a înțeles imediat cine e Martha, știe cine a fost Hilzonde, știe că la Münster a murit mama lor, dar pare a nu simți vreo emoție, a ales singurătatea, nu aparține decît lui însuși. Martha va ignora toate aceste detalii biografice. În cele din urmă, va uita întîlnirea din Köln, împrejurările ei dramatice, frica.
În final, Martha ar putea să-l salveze din carceră, i-ar putea cumpăra pe judecători. N-o face...
Am prezentat cartea în altă parte, la o ediție mai veche. Dacă ar fi să aleg un episod memorabil, o scenă (și numai una), din romanul lui Marguerite Yourcenar (1903 - 1987), știu cu precizie ce-aș alege...
M-aș opri la întîlnirea dintre Zénon Ligre și Martha Adriansen. Sînt frați vitregi, Martha este sora lui mai mică, dinspre mamă, dar ei nu știu asta, viața i-a despărțit, fiecare cu destinul lui, cu drumul lui. Prima și ultima lor întîlnire are loc în timpul unei epidemii de ciumă, în Köln. Zénon sosește în oraș pentru a „cerceta manifestările bolii�. Îi tratează pe suferinzi, intră în locuințele lor mizere, își riscă viața. Curiozitatea lui ascuțită înfrînge orice teamă. Ajunge și în casa în care locuiește sora lui, chemat chiar de ea.
Iată cum îl vede Martha: „A întrebat dacă aceea e casa Fuggers și a intrat fără temenele. Era un bărbat slab și înalt, cu ochii duși în fundul capului, înveșmîntat în mantia roșie a medicilor care au primit să-i îngrijească pe ciumați... Chipul său oacheș îi dădea înfățișarea unui străin. A urcat repede scara�.
Zénon merge la patul în care se chinuie Bénédicte, vara Marthei. Observă imediat că bolnava trage să moară. Urmează un scurt dialog:
�- Non est medicamentum [Nu există leac]... Forța vitală a surorii dumitale a secat. Putem cel mult să-i alinăm suferința...
- Nu sînt sora ei, se împotrivi deodată Martha... Mă numesc Martha Adriansen, nu Martha Fuggers. Sînt verișoara ei.
Medicul n-a învrednicit-o decît cu o singură privire și apoi s-a cufundat în cercetarea urmărilor leacului. Bolnava, mai liniștită, zîmbea parcă...
- Zici că te cheamă Martha Adriansen, spuse el fără veste. Am cunoscut în tinerețea mea un bărbat destul de vîrstnic ce purta acest nume. Pe soția lui o chema Hilzonde.
- Erau tatăl și mama mea, răspunse Martha aproape în silă.
- Mai trăiesc?
- Nu, zise ea mai încet. Erau la Münster cînd episcopul a cucerit orașul...�.
Medicul vrea să plece. Martha scoate un ban de aur. I-l dă fiindcă s-a simțit umilită, ea s-a temut de moarte, el nu. Ea trăiește în lumea celor avuți, el este un simplu medic rătăcitor, fără căpătîi. Indiferent, Zénon primește plata: „Faptul de a-l plăti restabilea distanța dintre ei... Fără să se uite la ea, medicul a vîrît banul în buzunarul mantiei și a ieșit�.
Frații se întîlnesc, dar Zénon nu-și divulgă identitatea. Oare de ce? Zénon a înțeles imediat cine e Martha, știe cine a fost Hilzonde, știe că la Münster a murit mama lor, dar pare a nu simți vreo emoție, a ales singurătatea, nu aparține decît lui însuși. Martha va ignora toate aceste detalii biografice. În cele din urmă, va uita întîlnirea din Köln, împrejurările ei dramatice, frica.
În final, Martha ar putea să-l salveze din carceră, i-ar putea cumpăra pe judecători. N-o face...
October 10, 2024
4,5
Маргерит Юрсенар блестяще воспроизводит мрачную картину Средневековья, где мало кто умирает своей смертью, а жизнь трудна и опасна. Но, очевидно, ее целью было не простое жизнеописание человека Средневековья, а процесс познания мира, квинтэссенцией которого является познание самого себя. Уже многократно замеченная традиция переводчиков изменять оригинальные названия произведений оказалась имеет место и в этом романе, названном "Философский камень". Процесс получения философского камня назывался Великим Деланием. L'oeuvre au noire (нигредо или черная стадия) означает первую стадию Великого Делания, обозначающую полное разложение. Алхимики верили, что, чтобы получить вещество с другими свойствами, необходимо разложить сырье путем различных манипуляций, таких как выпаривание, выжигание, измельчение, до "черной" массы. Юрсенар не зря назвала роман ни Великим Деланием, ни Философским камнем, потому что она вкладывала в название L'oeuvre au noire "Черная стадия" несколько смыслов. Это и трудности, которые формировали личность героя, подобно тому, как манипуляции алхимиков "разлагали" металл в "черную массу". Это и символ освобождения от шлаков предрассудков, ложных знаний и устаревших идей. Это и метафора рождения нового после смерти старого, Возрождение. "Черная стадия" - очень точная метафора, отражающая мучительный процесс поиска истины.
"В идеях его также происходит сдвиг. Теперь процесс мышления занимал его более, нежели сомнительный плод самой мысли. Он наблюдал за ходом своих рассуждений, как мог бы, прижав палец к запястью, считать биение пульсовой жилы или вслушиваться в чередование вдохов и выдохов под собственными ребрами. Всю свою жизнь он поражался способности идей наращиваться, подобно кристаллам, образуя странные бесплотные тела, расти, подобно опухолям, пожирающим плоть, их породившую, и даже чудовищным образом принимать человеческие очертания, подобно той инертной массе, какой разрешаются некоторые женщины и какая на самом деле � всего лишь материя, способная грезить. Очень многие плоды ума тоже были всего лишь бесформенными уродцами. Другие представления, более ясные и отчетливые, словно выкованные мастером своего дела, напоминали предметы, которые прельщают только издали: ты неустанно восхищаешься их изгибами и гранями, но на деле они оказываются лишь решеткой, в которой дух запирает самое себя, и ржавчина лжи уже подтачивает эти умозрительные железки. Иногда тебя охватывает трепет, как в момент трансмутации металлов: тебе кажется, что в тигле чел��веческого мозга появилась крупица золота, но нет � ты получил все то же исходное вещество; так в обманных опытах, какими придворные алхимики пытаются убедить своих царственных клиентов, будто они чего-то достигли, золото на дне перегонного куба оказывается самым обыкновенным, прошедшим через многие руки дукатом, который перед нагреванием подложил туда герметист. Понятия умирали, как умирают люди � за полвека своей жизни Зенону довелось увидеть, как многие поколения идей обратились в прах."
Хотя тут же Юрсенар создала других метафору для обозначения множественности идей - бесконечная череда волн на прибое. "Зенон следил за этим беспорядочным потоком, который, точно обломки крушения, уносил те немногие ощутимые истины, что кажутся нам бесспорными. Иногда ему чудилось, что под этим течением он различает неподвижную субстанцию, которая относится к мыслям так же, как мысли � к словам. Но не было доказательств тому, что этот субстрат окажется последним пластом и за этой неподвижностью не кроется движение, слишком быстрое для человеческого восприятия."
Зенон, главный герой, прототипами которого являются сразу несколько великих позднего Средневековья - Леонардо да Винчи, Коперник, Парацельс - демонстрирует внутреннюю эволюцию человека Средневековья в человека Возрождения. Трагический финал был неизбежен. И мне не кажется, что красный шар, возникший перед его глазами, не символизирует достижение им "Красной стадии". Смерть - это "Черная стадия".
Маргерит Юрсенар блестяще воспроизводит мрачную картину Средневековья, где мало кто умирает своей смертью, а жизнь трудна и опасна. Но, очевидно, ее целью было не простое жизнеописание человека Средневековья, а процесс познания мира, квинтэссенцией которого является познание самого себя. Уже многократно замеченная традиция переводчиков изменять оригинальные названия произведений оказалась имеет место и в этом романе, названном "Философский камень". Процесс получения философского камня назывался Великим Деланием. L'oeuvre au noire (нигредо или черная стадия) означает первую стадию Великого Делания, обозначающую полное разложение. Алхимики верили, что, чтобы получить вещество с другими свойствами, необходимо разложить сырье путем различных манипуляций, таких как выпаривание, выжигание, измельчение, до "черной" массы. Юрсенар не зря назвала роман ни Великим Деланием, ни Философским камнем, потому что она вкладывала в название L'oeuvre au noire "Черная стадия" несколько смыслов. Это и трудности, которые формировали личность героя, подобно тому, как манипуляции алхимиков "разлагали" металл в "черную массу". Это и символ освобождения от шлаков предрассудков, ложных знаний и устаревших идей. Это и метафора рождения нового после смерти старого, Возрождение. "Черная стадия" - очень точная метафора, отражающая мучительный процесс поиска истины.
"В идеях его также происходит сдвиг. Теперь процесс мышления занимал его более, нежели сомнительный плод самой мысли. Он наблюдал за ходом своих рассуждений, как мог бы, прижав палец к запястью, считать биение пульсовой жилы или вслушиваться в чередование вдохов и выдохов под собственными ребрами. Всю свою жизнь он поражался способности идей наращиваться, подобно кристаллам, образуя странные бесплотные тела, расти, подобно опухолям, пожирающим плоть, их породившую, и даже чудовищным образом принимать человеческие очертания, подобно той инертной массе, какой разрешаются некоторые женщины и какая на самом деле � всего лишь материя, способная грезить. Очень многие плоды ума тоже были всего лишь бесформенными уродцами. Другие представления, более ясные и отчетливые, словно выкованные мастером своего дела, напоминали предметы, которые прельщают только издали: ты неустанно восхищаешься их изгибами и гранями, но на деле они оказываются лишь решеткой, в которой дух запирает самое себя, и ржавчина лжи уже подтачивает эти умозрительные железки. Иногда тебя охватывает трепет, как в момент трансмутации металлов: тебе кажется, что в тигле чел��веческого мозга появилась крупица золота, но нет � ты получил все то же исходное вещество; так в обманных опытах, какими придворные алхимики пытаются убедить своих царственных клиентов, будто они чего-то достигли, золото на дне перегонного куба оказывается самым обыкновенным, прошедшим через многие руки дукатом, который перед нагреванием подложил туда герметист. Понятия умирали, как умирают люди � за полвека своей жизни Зенону довелось увидеть, как многие поколения идей обратились в прах."
Хотя тут же Юрсенар создала других метафору для обозначения множественности идей - бесконечная череда волн на прибое. "Зенон следил за этим беспорядочным потоком, который, точно обломки крушения, уносил те немногие ощутимые истины, что кажутся нам бесспорными. Иногда ему чудилось, что под этим течением он различает неподвижную субстанцию, которая относится к мыслям так же, как мысли � к словам. Но не было доказательств тому, что этот субстрат окажется последним пластом и за этой неподвижностью не кроется движение, слишком быстрое для человеческого восприятия."
Зенон, главный герой, прототипами которого являются сразу несколько великих позднего Средневековья - Леонардо да Винчи, Коперник, Парацельс - демонстрирует внутреннюю эволюцию человека Средневековья в человека Возрождения. Трагический финал был неизбежен. И мне не кажется, что красный шар, возникший перед его глазами, не символизирует достижение им "Красной стадии". Смерть - это "Черная стадия".
January 8, 2020
Μάλλον στη χώρα μας, κάποιοι μεγάλοι συγγραφείς δεν έτυχαν της αναγνώρισης που θα τους ταίριαζε και ως εκ τούτου τα έργα τους βρίσκονται συνήθως κρυμμένα - ή και παραγκωνισμένα - πάνω στα πίσω ράφια των βιβλιοπωλείων, δίνοντας χώρο σε πιο εύπεπτα και ευπώλητα έργα.
Μια τέτοια περίπτωση συγγραφέως είναι και η Μαργκεριτ Γιουρσενάρ.
Ερχόμενος για πρώτη φορά σε επαφή με το έργο της, μέσω του βιβλίου της "Η άβυσσος" κατάλαβα σχεδόν αμέσως πως έχω να κάνω με μια μεγάλη συγγραφέα και ένα αληθινό αριστούργημα.
Το βιβλίο μας περιγράφει την ζωή ενός φανταστικού "ιστορικού" προσώπου, του αλχημιστή, γιατρού και φιλόσοφου Ζήνωνα. Όμως ο Ζήνωνας δεν είναι ακριβώς ένα φανταστικό πρόσωπο. Είναι ένας χαρακτήρας - σύμβολο. Είναι όλοι οι σημαντικοί στοχαστές, επιστήμονες, απολογητές, αμφισβητίες του 16ου αιώνα. Η Γιουρσενάρ με τεράστια έρευνα αλλά και συγγραφική δεινότητα μας μεταφέρει στον κόσμο του Μεσαίωνα και μας φέρνει σε επαφή με όλα τα μεγάλα γεγονότα αλλά και όλες τις μεγάλες προσωπικότητες της εποχής.
Από τον Λεονάρντο και τον Έρασμο μέχρι τον Παράκελσο και τον αστρολόγο Τυχό. Ιστορικές αναφορές, σωρεία ονομάτων αλλά στον πυρήνα του έργου πάντα ο Άνθρωπος! Αυτό το ον που φτιάχτηκε για να φοβάται, να αγωνιά αλλά και να ψάχνει ασταμάτητα.
Έργο βαθειά ανθρώπινο λοιπόν "Η άβυσσος" αλλά και πολύ απαιτητικό. Το σίγουρο όμως είναι πως με υπομονή και επιμονή μπορεί να χαρίσει ώρες αναγνωστικής απόλαυσης.
5/5
ΥΓ1: Απαράδεκτη η μετάφραση του Χατζηνικολή. Λέξεις μπερδεμένες που δεν υπάρχουν ούτε στα λεξικά και παρόλο το απίστευτο name dropping καμία υποσημείωση καμία βοήθεια.
Μια τέτοια περίπτωση συγγραφέως είναι και η Μαργκεριτ Γιουρσενάρ.
Ερχόμενος για πρώτη φορά σε επαφή με το έργο της, μέσω του βιβλίου της "Η άβυσσος" κατάλαβα σχεδόν αμέσως πως έχω να κάνω με μια μεγάλη συγγραφέα και ένα αληθινό αριστούργημα.
Το βιβλίο μας περιγράφει την ζωή ενός φανταστικού "ιστορικού" προσώπου, του αλχημιστή, γιατρού και φιλόσοφου Ζήνωνα. Όμως ο Ζήνωνας δεν είναι ακριβώς ένα φανταστικό πρόσωπο. Είναι ένας χαρακτήρας - σύμβολο. Είναι όλοι οι σημαντικοί στοχαστές, επιστήμονες, απολογητές, αμφισβητίες του 16ου αιώνα. Η Γιουρσενάρ με τεράστια έρευνα αλλά και συγγραφική δεινότητα μας μεταφέρει στον κόσμο του Μεσαίωνα και μας φέρνει σε επαφή με όλα τα μεγάλα γεγονότα αλλά και όλες τις μεγάλες προσωπικότητες της εποχής.
Από τον Λεονάρντο και τον Έρασμο μέχρι τον Παράκελσο και τον αστρολόγο Τυχό. Ιστορικές αναφορές, σωρεία ονομάτων αλλά στον πυρήνα του έργου πάντα ο Άνθρωπος! Αυτό το ον που φτιάχτηκε για να φοβάται, να αγωνιά αλλά και να ψάχνει ασταμάτητα.
Έργο βαθειά ανθρώπινο λοιπόν "Η άβυσσος" αλλά και πολύ απαιτητικό. Το σίγουρο όμως είναι πως με υπομονή και επιμονή μπορεί να χαρίσει ώρες αναγνωστικής απόλαυσης.
5/5
ΥΓ1: Απαράδεκτη η μετάφραση του Χατζηνικολή. Λέξεις μπερδεμένες που δεν υπάρχουν ούτε στα λεξικά και παρόλο το απίστευτο name dropping καμία υποσημείωση καμία βοήθεια.
March 29, 2018
“Era una di quelle epoche in cui la ragione umana si trova prigioniera di un cerchio di fiamme�
Quella de “L’Opera al nero� è una genesi che parte da tre racconti giovanili della Yourcenar che, in seguito, saranno rimaneggiati nel �55 ma troveranno forma definitiva solo tra il 1962 ed il 1965.
Un percorso lungo comune a quello delle Memorie di Adriano:
una prima scrittura in età giovanile, una serie di rimaneggiamenti e la pubblicazione definitiva dopo anni dal primo nucleo.
Queste due opere hanno fatto sì che la Y. convivesse con i rispettivi personaggi durante un lungo arco della sua vita e che dunque possiamo indicare come sintomatici e fondamentali nella sua produzione.
Obscurum per obscurius Ignotum per ignotius
- Motto alchemico-
(Verso l'oscuro per il più oscuro, verso l'ignoto per il più ignoto)
Il protagonista de “L’Opera al nero� è Zenone, personaggio in sé immaginario che, tuttavia, raduna le caratteristiche e gli aspetti di altri,noti o meno, che comunque rispecchiano l’epoca e l'ambientazione storico-geografica.
E� proprio la scenografia ad essere l’interprete principale:
è l’Europa del �500 attraversata dalle sue guerre intestine ed internazionali che smuovono in continuazione la scacchiera continentale.
Al vertice la continua lotta di potere tra Stato e Chiesa: l’imperversare della Santa Inquisizione, i movimenti di Riforma e la Controriforma.
Zenone è un medico che parla la lingua dei filosofi e si è lasciato ammaliare dai richiami dell’alchimia.
Come se fosse prigioniero di un labirinto si muove alla ricerca di un’uscita che gli restituisca il senso dell’esistere.
La sua vita sarà volta all’investigare il corpo e l’anima sempre con il sentore di cascare in un tranello o in vicolo cieco.
Zenone è un uomo in fuga ( � Chi sarà tanto insensato da morire senza aver fatto per lo meno il giro della propria prigione?� ) che legge la realtà come continuo moto, continua ricerca sperimentale. Un uomo che ha esigenze del sapere che possono risultare sospette per l’epoca in cui vive. Un’epoca in cui un libero pensatore poteva facilmente valicare i confini dell’eresia.
Il romanzo si compone di tre parti corrispondenti alle tre fasi della vita di Zenone.
La prima è “La via errante� dove c’� un movimento da Bruges(� "Devo andare, Wiwine," ripeté Zénon. "Vado a vedere se l'ignoranza, la paura, l'inettitudine e la superstizione regnano anche altrove.") verso l’esterno. Sono gli anni giovanili in cui sente il bisogno di sperimentare in prima persona.
La seconda parte è intitolata “La via immobile� è si concentra sul ritorno in patria. E� la fase della maturità che necessita di speculazioni interiori più profonde.
Lo spazio fisico va restringendosi fino a alla stanza di una prigione che conduce alla terza parte del romanzo intitolata, per l’appunto, ”Il carcere.
Un romanzo ricco da ogni punto di vista: dalla perfetta caratterizzazione psicologica dei personaggi perfettamente calati nella loro epoca alla costruzione semantica e strutturale che offre molteplici spunti di analisi.
Uno spessore, pertanto, non indifferente che rende questa lettura tanto ostica quanto affascinante.
”L'uomo è un progetto che ha contro di sé il tempo, la necessità, la fortuna, e l'imbecille e sempre crescente supremazia del numero," disse con tono più pacato il filosofo. "Gli uomini uccideranno l'uomo."
Quella de “L’Opera al nero� è una genesi che parte da tre racconti giovanili della Yourcenar che, in seguito, saranno rimaneggiati nel �55 ma troveranno forma definitiva solo tra il 1962 ed il 1965.
Un percorso lungo comune a quello delle Memorie di Adriano:
una prima scrittura in età giovanile, una serie di rimaneggiamenti e la pubblicazione definitiva dopo anni dal primo nucleo.
Queste due opere hanno fatto sì che la Y. convivesse con i rispettivi personaggi durante un lungo arco della sua vita e che dunque possiamo indicare come sintomatici e fondamentali nella sua produzione.
Obscurum per obscurius Ignotum per ignotius
- Motto alchemico-
(Verso l'oscuro per il più oscuro, verso l'ignoto per il più ignoto)
Il protagonista de “L’Opera al nero� è Zenone, personaggio in sé immaginario che, tuttavia, raduna le caratteristiche e gli aspetti di altri,noti o meno, che comunque rispecchiano l’epoca e l'ambientazione storico-geografica.
E� proprio la scenografia ad essere l’interprete principale:
è l’Europa del �500 attraversata dalle sue guerre intestine ed internazionali che smuovono in continuazione la scacchiera continentale.
Al vertice la continua lotta di potere tra Stato e Chiesa: l’imperversare della Santa Inquisizione, i movimenti di Riforma e la Controriforma.
Zenone è un medico che parla la lingua dei filosofi e si è lasciato ammaliare dai richiami dell’alchimia.
Come se fosse prigioniero di un labirinto si muove alla ricerca di un’uscita che gli restituisca il senso dell’esistere.
La sua vita sarà volta all’investigare il corpo e l’anima sempre con il sentore di cascare in un tranello o in vicolo cieco.
Zenone è un uomo in fuga ( � Chi sarà tanto insensato da morire senza aver fatto per lo meno il giro della propria prigione?� ) che legge la realtà come continuo moto, continua ricerca sperimentale. Un uomo che ha esigenze del sapere che possono risultare sospette per l’epoca in cui vive. Un’epoca in cui un libero pensatore poteva facilmente valicare i confini dell’eresia.
Il romanzo si compone di tre parti corrispondenti alle tre fasi della vita di Zenone.
La prima è “La via errante� dove c’� un movimento da Bruges(� "Devo andare, Wiwine," ripeté Zénon. "Vado a vedere se l'ignoranza, la paura, l'inettitudine e la superstizione regnano anche altrove.") verso l’esterno. Sono gli anni giovanili in cui sente il bisogno di sperimentare in prima persona.
La seconda parte è intitolata “La via immobile� è si concentra sul ritorno in patria. E� la fase della maturità che necessita di speculazioni interiori più profonde.
Lo spazio fisico va restringendosi fino a alla stanza di una prigione che conduce alla terza parte del romanzo intitolata, per l’appunto, ”Il carcere.
Un romanzo ricco da ogni punto di vista: dalla perfetta caratterizzazione psicologica dei personaggi perfettamente calati nella loro epoca alla costruzione semantica e strutturale che offre molteplici spunti di analisi.
Uno spessore, pertanto, non indifferente che rende questa lettura tanto ostica quanto affascinante.
”L'uomo è un progetto che ha contro di sé il tempo, la necessità, la fortuna, e l'imbecille e sempre crescente supremazia del numero," disse con tono più pacato il filosofo. "Gli uomini uccideranno l'uomo."
July 26, 2021
"It might also have brought me to this point by other ways. We know less about the routes and aims of a man's life than a bird does about its migrations."
Zeno was born into the wealthy Ligre family in Bruges, Belgium. He is a child born out of wedlock however, which despite, and also because of, his privileged background, limits his chances in life to the clerical path. Zeno however is determined to learn and gain knowledge beyond what the authorities of his time have fixed for him. And this book, perhaps in a symbolic way, begins with Zeno and his cousin and heir to the Ligre fortune, Henry, meeting in different paths, the latter headed for war, the former to learn alchemy. Two different but dangerous paths in the time this book is set in.
It is sixteenth century Europe. The continent is rife with fanaticism and the religious and political powers are burning and burying alive those suspected of heresy and magic among other crimes. Enslavement and colonization by European powers across other continents is booming. One of the most violent times in recorded history and enters Zeno, an alchemist, physician and philosopher. A man determined to learn and spread truths about the universe and the human body and soul, even though this poses constant dangers to him and will end up being his undoing.
I couldn't help but like Zeno. Determined to learn and know as much as he can about everything he can, including himself, and not giving in to strong external pressures or self-deception.
" What I do not know, I know full well that I do not know, and I envy those who will eventually know more; but I know also that, exactly like me, they will be obliged to measure, deduce, and then mistrust the deductions so produced; they will have to make allowance for the part which is true in any falsehood, and likewise reckon the eternal admixture of falsity in truth."
Yourcenar writes the best historical fiction I've read thus far. What she was able to do brilliantly with Hadrian, she does with Zeno. The is a favourite and one of the best books I've read. And so before reading this book I was wary that it wouldn't come close to Memoirs. And in the end it really didn't need to, perhaps it's even complimentary to Memoirs in certain ways, so that I shouldn't even have to choose which I like best.
I was completely transported to Europe at the end of the middle-ages, with its inquisitions and trials, wars, plagues: its social and political context wonderfully furnished. That together with all the characters in this story, in their generosity, jealousies, pettiness, triumphs, failures, losses, bravery, cowardice and in short, in their humanness, have made this an unforgettable story and the best book I've read this year so far.
Zeno was born into the wealthy Ligre family in Bruges, Belgium. He is a child born out of wedlock however, which despite, and also because of, his privileged background, limits his chances in life to the clerical path. Zeno however is determined to learn and gain knowledge beyond what the authorities of his time have fixed for him. And this book, perhaps in a symbolic way, begins with Zeno and his cousin and heir to the Ligre fortune, Henry, meeting in different paths, the latter headed for war, the former to learn alchemy. Two different but dangerous paths in the time this book is set in.
It is sixteenth century Europe. The continent is rife with fanaticism and the religious and political powers are burning and burying alive those suspected of heresy and magic among other crimes. Enslavement and colonization by European powers across other continents is booming. One of the most violent times in recorded history and enters Zeno, an alchemist, physician and philosopher. A man determined to learn and spread truths about the universe and the human body and soul, even though this poses constant dangers to him and will end up being his undoing.
I couldn't help but like Zeno. Determined to learn and know as much as he can about everything he can, including himself, and not giving in to strong external pressures or self-deception.
" What I do not know, I know full well that I do not know, and I envy those who will eventually know more; but I know also that, exactly like me, they will be obliged to measure, deduce, and then mistrust the deductions so produced; they will have to make allowance for the part which is true in any falsehood, and likewise reckon the eternal admixture of falsity in truth."
Yourcenar writes the best historical fiction I've read thus far. What she was able to do brilliantly with Hadrian, she does with Zeno. The is a favourite and one of the best books I've read. And so before reading this book I was wary that it wouldn't come close to Memoirs. And in the end it really didn't need to, perhaps it's even complimentary to Memoirs in certain ways, so that I shouldn't even have to choose which I like best.
I was completely transported to Europe at the end of the middle-ages, with its inquisitions and trials, wars, plagues: its social and political context wonderfully furnished. That together with all the characters in this story, in their generosity, jealousies, pettiness, triumphs, failures, losses, bravery, cowardice and in short, in their humanness, have made this an unforgettable story and the best book I've read this year so far.
Shelved as 'i-get-the-picture'
February 20, 2014(I can see that this is going to be tough going as fiction, as Chris says -- and probably not worth the effort - for me, at least. But I'll let the "initial comment" below stand, and put this book back on the shelf. The Author's Note at the back of the book is worth reading.)
Initial comment:
In the notes appended to the english edition of Memoirs of Hadrian, Youcenar writes to Frick that the book was in large part inspired by a quote she found in 1927, from Flaubert's correspondence, that runs: "Just when the gods had ceased to be, and the Christ had not yet come, there was a unique moment in history, between Cicero and Marcus Aurelius, when man stood alone." Thus, the whole of the Hadrian book is a meditation and celebration of the classical pagan humanism (for the nature of which, see also Cochrane's famous Christianity and Classical Culture: ).
The Abyss starts with a quotation (in the motto) from Pico della Mirandola's Oratio de hominis dignitate that runs (in part): "I have given you, O Adam, no fixed abode, no visage of your own, nor any special gift, in order that whatever place or aspect or talents you yourself will have desired, you may have and possess them wholly in accord with your desire and your own decision. Other species are confined to a prescribed nature under laws of my making. No limits have been imposed upon you, however; you determine your nature by your own free will...." -- a passage which finds its direct echo in J.-J. Rousseau's Second Discourse, where Rousseau argues for the plasticity of man -- the central premise underlying Rousseau's humanism.
Zeno -- the chief character in The Abyss -- is placed (in the middle of the 16th century) at the crossroad where the Medieval worldview (essentially Aristotelian) was giving way to Modernity and early modern science -- to Bruno, Brahe, Copernicus, Galileo, and (ultimately) to the great Descartes himself. For this junction, see the classic treatments of Koyré and Burtt, two magnificent books.
Koyre:
Burtt:
(With books like this, ignore the the fact that there are some people give these books two or three stars... People who do this are simply ignorant. These are must read books.).
But the birth of modern science was not simply the birth of a mechanistic system -- because modern humanism -- and this line runs from Rousseau to Marx and to Freud --, while materialistic, is not mechancistic -- but contains an element of vitalism (there is no 'spirit'; everything is matter; but matter is alive -- "thinking matter", in Yolton's phrase. This is a line of thought that traces back to the Stoics, and of course survives in the thought, for example, of Alfred North Whitehead (Science and the Modern World). It is key to understanding the humanist interpretation of Marx that was first espoused by Rodolfo Mondolfo.
But what is interesting here - and why I mention all this in the present context -- is that Yourcenar (quite accurately) traces this vitalistic element to late renaissance alchemy. She writes in the author's note (p. 364f.): "On a purely intellectual level, the Zeno of this novel, still marked by scholasticism, though reacting against it, stands halfway between the subversive dynamism of the alchemists [Y. is thinking here of the likes of Paracelsus] and the mechanistic philosophy which is to prevail in the immediate future, between hermetic beliefs which postulate a God immanent in all things [again, think Giordano Bruno; and see Koyré] and an atheism barely avowed.... Such a position is not unique in this century [16th]".
Regardless of how this book turns out from a novelistic point of view, Yourcenar's grasp of intellectual history is profound and reliable.
Initial comment:
In the notes appended to the english edition of Memoirs of Hadrian, Youcenar writes to Frick that the book was in large part inspired by a quote she found in 1927, from Flaubert's correspondence, that runs: "Just when the gods had ceased to be, and the Christ had not yet come, there was a unique moment in history, between Cicero and Marcus Aurelius, when man stood alone." Thus, the whole of the Hadrian book is a meditation and celebration of the classical pagan humanism (for the nature of which, see also Cochrane's famous Christianity and Classical Culture: ).
The Abyss starts with a quotation (in the motto) from Pico della Mirandola's Oratio de hominis dignitate that runs (in part): "I have given you, O Adam, no fixed abode, no visage of your own, nor any special gift, in order that whatever place or aspect or talents you yourself will have desired, you may have and possess them wholly in accord with your desire and your own decision. Other species are confined to a prescribed nature under laws of my making. No limits have been imposed upon you, however; you determine your nature by your own free will...." -- a passage which finds its direct echo in J.-J. Rousseau's Second Discourse, where Rousseau argues for the plasticity of man -- the central premise underlying Rousseau's humanism.
Zeno -- the chief character in The Abyss -- is placed (in the middle of the 16th century) at the crossroad where the Medieval worldview (essentially Aristotelian) was giving way to Modernity and early modern science -- to Bruno, Brahe, Copernicus, Galileo, and (ultimately) to the great Descartes himself. For this junction, see the classic treatments of Koyré and Burtt, two magnificent books.
Koyre:
Burtt:
(With books like this, ignore the the fact that there are some people give these books two or three stars... People who do this are simply ignorant. These are must read books.).
But the birth of modern science was not simply the birth of a mechanistic system -- because modern humanism -- and this line runs from Rousseau to Marx and to Freud --, while materialistic, is not mechancistic -- but contains an element of vitalism (there is no 'spirit'; everything is matter; but matter is alive -- "thinking matter", in Yolton's phrase. This is a line of thought that traces back to the Stoics, and of course survives in the thought, for example, of Alfred North Whitehead (Science and the Modern World). It is key to understanding the humanist interpretation of Marx that was first espoused by Rodolfo Mondolfo.
But what is interesting here - and why I mention all this in the present context -- is that Yourcenar (quite accurately) traces this vitalistic element to late renaissance alchemy. She writes in the author's note (p. 364f.): "On a purely intellectual level, the Zeno of this novel, still marked by scholasticism, though reacting against it, stands halfway between the subversive dynamism of the alchemists [Y. is thinking here of the likes of Paracelsus] and the mechanistic philosophy which is to prevail in the immediate future, between hermetic beliefs which postulate a God immanent in all things [again, think Giordano Bruno; and see Koyré] and an atheism barely avowed.... Such a position is not unique in this century [16th]".
Regardless of how this book turns out from a novelistic point of view, Yourcenar's grasp of intellectual history is profound and reliable.
December 3, 2019
Daquilo que sei de Marguerite Yourcenar, julgo que a autora seria incapaz de escrever um livro mau, contudo, escreveu um livro deveras complicado de ler.
Para o comum dos leitores A Obra ao Negro peca por excesso de erudição; para bem entendermos esta obra teríamos que ter amplos conhecimentos de História, Filosofia e Religião. Para complicar mais um pouquinho a história temos um vasto lote de personagens com complexas ligações entre si.
Assim, cheguei a um terço do livro e larguei-o por umas semanas. Recomecei, rabisquei uma tosca árvore genealógica e, seguindo as cábulas, entrei finalmente no enredo. Quando a história se foca com mais detalhe na vida da personagem principal - Zenão - a leitura desliza e faz-se prazerosa. Nas últimas páginas reencontrei a Yourcenar que, como poucos, sabia escrever sobre dor com uma beleza inigualável.
Para o comum dos leitores A Obra ao Negro peca por excesso de erudição; para bem entendermos esta obra teríamos que ter amplos conhecimentos de História, Filosofia e Religião. Para complicar mais um pouquinho a história temos um vasto lote de personagens com complexas ligações entre si.
Assim, cheguei a um terço do livro e larguei-o por umas semanas. Recomecei, rabisquei uma tosca árvore genealógica e, seguindo as cábulas, entrei finalmente no enredo. Quando a história se foca com mais detalhe na vida da personagem principal - Zenão - a leitura desliza e faz-se prazerosa. Nas últimas páginas reencontrei a Yourcenar que, como poucos, sabia escrever sobre dor com uma beleza inigualável.
October 4, 2012
Nella nota finale l’autrice svela che il titolo del libro e il personaggio immaginario di Zenone, del quale è raccontata la vita nel romanzo, le sono stati inizialmente ispirati dall’opera di Albrecht Dürer , “Melencolia�, che raffigura una figura giovanile circondata da diversi oggetti della vita pratica quali strumenti di lavoro o congegni matematici, che medita amaramente mentre misura con un compasso. Quello fu lo spunto iniziale da cui prese origine l’ispirazione della scrittrice, che ha costruito un romanzo storico fondendo nella figura di Zenone, medico, alchimista e filosofo del sedicesimo secolo, caratteristiche di altri personaggi dell’epoca, a partire da Erasmo da Rotterdam fino al chimico Paracelso, al medico Michele Serveto e al filosofo Tommaso Campanella, come afferma lei stessa nella nota finale. Tutti uomini “diversi� destinati ad una vita in nero, segnata dal potere dell’intelletto e dal mistero degli esperimenti segreti. Anche Zenone è, come loro, un “diverso�, il simbolo della storia del mondo che faticosamente sta passando dalle leggi misteriose dell’alchimia e della magia,che furono le arti del Medio Evo, alla scienza nuova che porterà alle conquiste tecniche del mondo moderno; il simbolo altresì di un uomo in cammino, che si sta allontanando dall’uomo medioevale, imbevuto della cultura scolastico aristotelica geocentrica, per dirigersi verso un uomo nuovo, il quale, anziché basarsi sulle dogmatiche certezze che la cultura del tempo impone, si dedica a sperimentare la realtà, misura, pesa e calcola. Un uomo che “si onora di essere capace domani di pensare diversamente da oggi�.
Zenone, un uomo che coltivò il dubbio, l’inguaribile malattia dell’ingegno umano grazie al quale la civiltà è sempre in cammino.
Zenone, un uomo che coltivò il dubbio, l’inguaribile malattia dell’ingegno umano grazie al quale la civiltà è sempre in cammino.
November 21, 2018
In tutta onestà ho raccontato ad Anobii una piccola bugia riguardo questa "opera al nero": avevo già letto questo libro. Precisamente alle superiori, fu la lettura che la giovanissima insegnante di lettere che sarebbe diventata la madre del mio amore per la lettura (e che sostituiva l'ignobile vecchiarda di ruolo) ci assegnò. Ho deciso di riprenderlo in mano sia per la voglia di ritornare a quei tempi lontani almeno rileggendo una storia, sia attratto dalla Yourcenar dopo aver letto quell'indiscutibile capolavoro che è "Memorie di Adriano": un mezzo fiasco.
Un mezzo fiasco perchè questo romanzo, che pretende di riprodurre il fermento culturale e spirituale che l'incredibile terremoto della Riforma scatenò sull'Europa del 500, vede come protagonista in intellettuale che pur in tutta la sua complessità non riesce ad avere l'impatto sull'immaginario del lettore che può avere la ciclopica figura dell'imperatore Adriano. Ne consegue che Zenone pur radunando in sè tutte più innovative tendenze dell'uomo riformatore (alchimista, teologo eretico, scienziato, medico) non può nella mente di chi legge porre rimedio a quei difetti che c'erano già in "Memorie di Adriano" ma che il carisma dell'imperatore filosofo spazzava via con facilità.
Il periodare è prolisso e dogmatico come una lezione universitaria e l'immaginario rimane abbastanza scialbo anche nelle scene più drammatiche ( l'assedio di Munster e la sanguinosa fine di quell'esperienza anabattista che decretò nei fatti il fallimento della Riforma); la stessa scelta delle scene su cui focalizzare la vita dell'alchimista ribelle sembra dare meno importanza alla necessità (vitale per un romanzo) di restituire la vita ed il sentimento di uomini così lontani da noi piuttosto che alla preoccupazione (piuttosto scolastica) di fornire a chi legge un resoconto dettagliato dell'evolversi di scienza, filosofia e teologia in quell'epoca di transizione.
Solo che questo è un romanzo, non un saggio: e perciò mi sembra una colpa difficile da perdonare, anche se il fatto che "L'opera al Nero" sia stata concepito da una Yourcenar ancora giovane ed immersa nel mondo accademico possa costituire una attenuante.
La realtà è che passati alcuni giorni mi sono accorto con fastidio che di questo romanzo non mi è rimasto nulla se non quella che potrebbe essere una lezione di liceo sull'Età moderna: in buona sostanza un romanzo dimenticabile. Questo naturalmente non significa che sia un libro inutile, infatti tale è la maniacale cura dell'autrice nello sviluppare ragionamenti e abitudini di quel tempo, che girando l'ultima pagina ho avuto la sensazione di quanto fosse alieno e diverso da noi il mondo del cinquecento, e soprattutto quanto fosse complesso e tormentato, per nulla libero delle supersitzioni medioevali e sicuramente molto lontano da quella situazione ideale dell'età della ragione in cui l'umanesimo aveva fatto sperare.
Non posso fare a meno di rimarcare il gretto classismo dell'autrice nei confronti delle classi povere, che oltre alla fame ed alle malattie devono subire il giudizio di ignoranza e superstizione dell'autrice (come se fosse colpa loro essere nati poveri, direbbe Josè Saramago): questo non solo è difficile da accettare, ma anche conduce la Yourcenar a trascurae aspetti e protagonisti di quel mondo che davvero sarebbero stati in grado di colorare ed arricchire un'opera. Dai soldati di ventura alle scapestrate rime di Pietro Aretino,dagli immensi capolavori che l'Italia e le Fiandre andavano producendo al rassicurante pragmatismo dei grandi banchieri, tutto questo non sembra interessare granchè.
In sintesi: leggendolo dopo vent'anni capisco con grande chiarezza l' interesse scolastico di questo libro, che condusse la mia professoressa (che non finirò mai di andare a trovare con la mia più grande gratitudine) ad assegnarlo; ma è un libro che al di là della sua utilità si dimentica presto ed in fretta di essere anche un romanzo.
Tre stelle, Zenone. Ripassi al prossimo appello, se riesce asopravvivere.
Un mezzo fiasco perchè questo romanzo, che pretende di riprodurre il fermento culturale e spirituale che l'incredibile terremoto della Riforma scatenò sull'Europa del 500, vede come protagonista in intellettuale che pur in tutta la sua complessità non riesce ad avere l'impatto sull'immaginario del lettore che può avere la ciclopica figura dell'imperatore Adriano. Ne consegue che Zenone pur radunando in sè tutte più innovative tendenze dell'uomo riformatore (alchimista, teologo eretico, scienziato, medico) non può nella mente di chi legge porre rimedio a quei difetti che c'erano già in "Memorie di Adriano" ma che il carisma dell'imperatore filosofo spazzava via con facilità.
Il periodare è prolisso e dogmatico come una lezione universitaria e l'immaginario rimane abbastanza scialbo anche nelle scene più drammatiche ( l'assedio di Munster e la sanguinosa fine di quell'esperienza anabattista che decretò nei fatti il fallimento della Riforma); la stessa scelta delle scene su cui focalizzare la vita dell'alchimista ribelle sembra dare meno importanza alla necessità (vitale per un romanzo) di restituire la vita ed il sentimento di uomini così lontani da noi piuttosto che alla preoccupazione (piuttosto scolastica) di fornire a chi legge un resoconto dettagliato dell'evolversi di scienza, filosofia e teologia in quell'epoca di transizione.
Solo che questo è un romanzo, non un saggio: e perciò mi sembra una colpa difficile da perdonare, anche se il fatto che "L'opera al Nero" sia stata concepito da una Yourcenar ancora giovane ed immersa nel mondo accademico possa costituire una attenuante.
La realtà è che passati alcuni giorni mi sono accorto con fastidio che di questo romanzo non mi è rimasto nulla se non quella che potrebbe essere una lezione di liceo sull'Età moderna: in buona sostanza un romanzo dimenticabile. Questo naturalmente non significa che sia un libro inutile, infatti tale è la maniacale cura dell'autrice nello sviluppare ragionamenti e abitudini di quel tempo, che girando l'ultima pagina ho avuto la sensazione di quanto fosse alieno e diverso da noi il mondo del cinquecento, e soprattutto quanto fosse complesso e tormentato, per nulla libero delle supersitzioni medioevali e sicuramente molto lontano da quella situazione ideale dell'età della ragione in cui l'umanesimo aveva fatto sperare.
Non posso fare a meno di rimarcare il gretto classismo dell'autrice nei confronti delle classi povere, che oltre alla fame ed alle malattie devono subire il giudizio di ignoranza e superstizione dell'autrice (come se fosse colpa loro essere nati poveri, direbbe Josè Saramago): questo non solo è difficile da accettare, ma anche conduce la Yourcenar a trascurae aspetti e protagonisti di quel mondo che davvero sarebbero stati in grado di colorare ed arricchire un'opera. Dai soldati di ventura alle scapestrate rime di Pietro Aretino,dagli immensi capolavori che l'Italia e le Fiandre andavano producendo al rassicurante pragmatismo dei grandi banchieri, tutto questo non sembra interessare granchè.
In sintesi: leggendolo dopo vent'anni capisco con grande chiarezza l' interesse scolastico di questo libro, che condusse la mia professoressa (che non finirò mai di andare a trovare con la mia più grande gratitudine) ad assegnarlo; ma è un libro che al di là della sua utilità si dimentica presto ed in fretta di essere anche un romanzo.
Tre stelle, Zenone. Ripassi al prossimo appello, se riesce asopravvivere.
January 11, 2024
Minstens zo indrukwekkend qua literaire prestatie als haar , maar tegelijk en om verschillende redenen zijn Yourcenars twee meesterwerken niet te vergelijken. Wat ze wel met elkaar gemeen hebben is de uiterst secure en gedetailleerde literaire stijl waarmee de Nobelprijswinnares het genre van de historisch roman naar een hoger, om niet te zeggen naar het hoogste plan tilt.
Wie doet haar dat na? Ik moet toegeven dat ik als beginnende literatuurliefhebber veel meer historische romans las dan de laatste jaren. Ik had een fascinatie voor de mystieke tijden en werelden die Umberto Eco tot leven wist te wekken, zoals in , hoewel ik er lang niet alles van begreep. Ook en natuurlijk wisten me toen te bekoren. Intussen kom ik er maar niet toe om aan het veelbelovende oeuvre van Hilary Mantel te beginnen. Enkel het heerlijke en het fenomenale kruisten op dat vlak mijn leespad de voorbije jaren.
Toevallig zijn die laatste twee verwant aan de twee eerder vernoemde werken van Yourcenar. In mijn review van Pfeijffers 'Alkibiades' durfde ik zelfs de vergelijking met 'Hadrianus' maken, omdat er eenzelfde persoonlijke inleving, eenzelfde gevoelig oog voor detail en eenzelfde ingebed en persoonlijk vertelperspectief gebruikt wordt. In beide romans is de historische figuur nl. zelf aan het woord en dat maakte voor mij Yourcenars een pakkender boek dan 'Het hermetisch zwart'.
Hier wordt het hoofdpersonage, de arts-filosoof-alchimist Zeno, dat in tegenstelling tot Hadrianus fictief is, ingebed en gevormd door het historische tijdskader; iets wat helemaal duidelijk wordt als je de aantekeningen en het nawoord van Yourcenar leest. Inhoudelijk en qua ideeën die via jarenlange research en levenswijsheid gerijpt zijn, overtreft deze roman 'Hadrianus'. De complexiteit van het tijdsgewricht (ook in 'Wildevrouw' tastbaar gemaakt) wordt hallucinant, verregaand en naadloos door Yourcenar gebricoleerd tot levensechte beschrijvingen en vooral via enkele onvergetelijke dialogen die de hoogtepunten van dit meesterwerk vormen, met Zeno als de ongrijpbare, maar net zo onvergetelijke tegenhanger van Hadrianus.
Zeker tijdens het lezen van bovengenoemde aantekeningen, overviel me trouwens datzelfde gevoel van lang niet alles begrepen te hebben, zoals vroeger bij de romans van Umberto Eco. Maar dit boek bewees andermaal nog maar eens dat je als lezer (meestal) beloond wordt wanneer je een boek voorgeschoteld krijgt waar je je tanden in moet zetten en moeite bij moet doen. Ik geef dan ook nog geen 5 sterren, want ik wil deze Yourcenar, net als haar 'Hadrianus' ooit nog eens herlezen.
Wie doet haar dat na? Ik moet toegeven dat ik als beginnende literatuurliefhebber veel meer historische romans las dan de laatste jaren. Ik had een fascinatie voor de mystieke tijden en werelden die Umberto Eco tot leven wist te wekken, zoals in , hoewel ik er lang niet alles van begreep. Ook en natuurlijk wisten me toen te bekoren. Intussen kom ik er maar niet toe om aan het veelbelovende oeuvre van Hilary Mantel te beginnen. Enkel het heerlijke en het fenomenale kruisten op dat vlak mijn leespad de voorbije jaren.
Toevallig zijn die laatste twee verwant aan de twee eerder vernoemde werken van Yourcenar. In mijn review van Pfeijffers 'Alkibiades' durfde ik zelfs de vergelijking met 'Hadrianus' maken, omdat er eenzelfde persoonlijke inleving, eenzelfde gevoelig oog voor detail en eenzelfde ingebed en persoonlijk vertelperspectief gebruikt wordt. In beide romans is de historische figuur nl. zelf aan het woord en dat maakte voor mij Yourcenars een pakkender boek dan 'Het hermetisch zwart'.
Hier wordt het hoofdpersonage, de arts-filosoof-alchimist Zeno, dat in tegenstelling tot Hadrianus fictief is, ingebed en gevormd door het historische tijdskader; iets wat helemaal duidelijk wordt als je de aantekeningen en het nawoord van Yourcenar leest. Inhoudelijk en qua ideeën die via jarenlange research en levenswijsheid gerijpt zijn, overtreft deze roman 'Hadrianus'. De complexiteit van het tijdsgewricht (ook in 'Wildevrouw' tastbaar gemaakt) wordt hallucinant, verregaand en naadloos door Yourcenar gebricoleerd tot levensechte beschrijvingen en vooral via enkele onvergetelijke dialogen die de hoogtepunten van dit meesterwerk vormen, met Zeno als de ongrijpbare, maar net zo onvergetelijke tegenhanger van Hadrianus.
Zeker tijdens het lezen van bovengenoemde aantekeningen, overviel me trouwens datzelfde gevoel van lang niet alles begrepen te hebben, zoals vroeger bij de romans van Umberto Eco. Maar dit boek bewees andermaal nog maar eens dat je als lezer (meestal) beloond wordt wanneer je een boek voorgeschoteld krijgt waar je je tanden in moet zetten en moeite bij moet doen. Ik geef dan ook nog geen 5 sterren, want ik wil deze Yourcenar, net als haar 'Hadrianus' ooit nog eens herlezen.
August 22, 2021
Otra excelente novela de la autora, que puede ser leída de dos maneras: la primera, como novela histórica. La trama transcurre en el siglo XVI, un período muy turbulento, marcado por la Reforma protestante y el surgimiento del calvinismo, luteranismo, anglicanismo, etcétera, y muchos conflictos políticos, sociales y religiosos. La reconstrucción es exquisita, marcada como siempre por la prosa refinada, cultivada, rica de Yourcenar. Es posible que a un lector sin conocimientos de ese período algunas cosas le resulten difíciles de comprender (fue mi caso). La segunda forma de leer la novela es como una biografía de su protagonista, Zenón, desde su nacimiento hasta su muerte. Zenón es un sabio multifacético (inventor, alquimista, médico, teólogo...) y si tuviera que definirlo, diría que es un personaje que ama el conocimiento por encima de todas las cosas. No toma partido por las rivalidades existentes: hay un tono pesimista en la novela. El fanatismo y el odio no es patrimonio exclusivo de una monarquía o religión: tanto los protestantes como los católicos son crueles, brutales y quieren matarse mutuamente, y los príncipes que siguen no son mucho mejores.
Definitivamente la recomiendo.
Definitivamente la recomiendo.
March 5, 2020
Eppur si muove�
« Ecrites pendant les années 60, les pages de L’Œuvre au noir sont hivernales, froides et livides; elles nous renvoient la pâleur de l’époque. Cette luminosité se distingue d’emblée de celle des Mémoires d’Hadrien dont les reflets chauds et dorés nous rappellent les prémices de l’automne. Les vers du demi-dieu affleurent l’encre bleue de Méditerranée comme autant de pépites cuivrées qui annoncent le crépuscule d’un monde. L’hiver du Moyen-âge, lui, nous glace immédiatement les rétines de sa lumière crue et le regard sec de Zénon se mêle à l’obscurantisme de son temps. Une brume épaisse maintient les corps et les esprits dans un clair-obscur qui n’est jamais innocent. Au XVIe siècle, la lucidité est un risque à prendre. »
Ces mots extraits de l’étude de Maxim Blondovski, reflètent à merveille mes propres perceptions contradictoires à la lecture du roman, causées à la fois d'un horizon d’attente (trop) influencé par les glorieuses Mémoires d’Hadrien, puis de l’atmosphère glaciale qui m’a enveloppée tout au long de la lecture et que j’ai suspectée au début provenir de ma propre incapacité de vivre les « aventures du savoir » du personnage et enfin par la distance entre ma pensée et mes émotions de lecteur, qui est demeurée constante même à la fin, car la mort du héros je l’ai contemplée froidement, en accord parfait avec non seulement la sèche voix narrative mais aussi avec l’attitude du héros, qui objective lui aussi la mort.
Par opposition aux Mémoires d’Hadrien, qui s’insinuent dans ton âme lui touchant à jamais d’une ineffable émotion, L’œuvre au noirs’adresse plutôt à ta raison sceptique et encline à voir plutôt la laideur de ce bas monde � c’est-à-dire là où l'une exulte la beauté de l’homme et son droit à l’immortalité, l’autre déplore l’abjection du même homme et de son destin éphémère. S’agit-il des stéréotypies banales, telles antiquité d’or et moyen-âge obscurantiste ? Pas du tout. Il y a trait plutôt à deux attitudes distinctes devant la vie, le savoir et la mort, qui mènent à deux catégories esthétiques apparentés mais différentes, elles aussi : le sublime et le tragique. Ainsi la grandeur des deux personnages est-elle mise en évidence par le contraste avec leur époque : si Hadrien est le héros sublime dans une société décadente et gracieuse, Zénon est le héros tragique dans une société ignorante et grotesque.
On pourrait dire (pour finir la comparaison entre les deux œuvres) que la personnalité de Hadrien transcende son monde, tandis que la personnalité de Zénon est finalement écrasée par le sien. C’est pourquoi la reconstitution d’une époque, rendue essentielle dans l’économie du roman, est réalisée brillamment, avec une abondance de détails qui aurait horrifié Aristote, si ferme dans son opinion que les épisodes nuisent à la cohérence du texte. Il y a des pages mémorables à illustrer la mentalité et la couleur du temps, parmi lesquelles le siège de Münster où meurt la mère de Zénon et où la distinction entre victime et agresseur s’efface, tant le comportement des uns et des autres est semblable, ou les scènes de la vie des soldats � d’où ressort l’intéressante figure du cousin de Zénon, Henri-Maximilien cet « aventurier de la puissance » duquel ne reste trace ni même de ses efforts créatifs, ou la description des sectes secrètes qui ressemblent étrangement à de vieux rites païens, ou les procès d’hérésie avec leur épouvantable logique, et ainsi de suite. Un monde dégradé et damné, où l’horrible règne avec autant d’autorité qu’il peut se permettre d’emprunter des accents lyriques :
La peste, venue d’Orient, entra en Allemagne par la Bohème. Elle voyageait sans se presser, au bruit des cloches, comme une impératrice. Penchée sur le verre du buveur, soufflant la chandelle du savant assis parmi ses livres, servant la messe du prêtre, cachée comme une puce dans la chemise des fille de joies, la peste apportait à la vie de tous un élément d’insolente égalité, un âcre et dangereux ferment d’aventure. Le glas répandait dans l’air une insistante rumeur de fête noire�
De ce monde ignorant, pénible et avec une volupté du mal presque indécente essaie de se délimiter Zénon, sans vraiment en être capable, car aux obstacles extérieurs (fournis par la société) s’ajoutent ceux intérieurs (découlant de ses propres doutes et peurs). La structure tripartite du livre semble au début contredire le titre, en suggérant que le héros, en passant du travail alchimique et puis médical à la pensée philosophique sera en mesure de traverser toutes les trois phases alchimiques pour arriver à transmuter l’éphémère en éternité, la matière en esprit:
S’en suivait-il que les phases subséquentes de l’aventure alchimique fussent autre chose que des songes, et qu’un jour il connaîtrait aussi la pureté ascétique de l’Œuvre au Blanc, puis le triomphe conjugué de l’esprit et des sens qui caractérise l’Œuvre au Rouge ?
Pourtant, celui qui était parti à la recherche du soi à vingt ans, qui avait complété ironiquement la définition socratique des limites du savoir humain (« Je sais que je ne sais pas ce que je ne sais pas »), qui avait fait de l’alchimie une science et de la médecine une philosophie, celui qui mourra en digne homme comme Giordano Bruno plus tard en choisissant de ne pas se désister de ses idées, cet homme se résignera à constater que sa quête a été inutile et que ses cent pas dans sa cellule où il attend la mort reprennent l’itinéraire circulaire de la vie, itinéraire qu’il avait commencé avec tant de confiance qu’il va être « plus qu’un homme », pour se rendre compte qu’� la fin de sa vie il se trouve au point du départ, et que par dessus les contraintes temporelles, matérielles et spirituelles qui sont les murs du prison de l’être, c’est l’humanité même qui s’engage avec enthousiasme dans sa propre destruction :
L’homme est une entreprise qui a contre elle le temps, la nécessité, la fortune et l’imbécile et toujours croissante primauté du nombre, dit plus posément le philosophe. Les hommes tueront l’homme.
Comme son illustre homonyme, Zénon découvre que la pluralité (ou la divisibilité) ne sont que des apparences, des illusions magiques (des herbes, des métaux, des mots, de la religion) auxquelles seulement les rigueurs de l'intelligence peuvent s’opposer. Par conséquent, à la fin, le héros trouve un sens à sa vie, même s’il a eu la révélation de l’illusion du mouvement, car
Qui serait assez insensé pour mourir sans avoir fait au moins le tour de sa prison ?
Et puis, la mort pleine de dignité le transforme finalement, au moins on l’espère, dans cette flèche fameuse à laquelle on nie plus le lancement vers le savoir transformé en épiphanie.
Il fit ou crut faire un effort pour se lever, sans bien savoir s’il était secouru ou si au contraire il portait secours. Les grincement des clés tournées et des verrous repoussés ne fut plus pour lui qu’un bruit suraigu de porte qui s’ouvre. Et c’est aussi loin qu’on peut aller dans la fin de Zénon.
July 8, 2020
Romanzo storico di ampio respiro, impegnativo, pregnante, sorretto da una ricerca storica certosina che porta il lettore nel XVI secolo, epoca in bilico tra il nuovo sapere prodotto dal Rinascimento e l’eresia soggiacente a ogni nuova evoluzione della mente. Un’epoca storica in pura dimensione europea con una breve incursione verso il Levante, sullo sfondo le continue guerre di conquista, la Riforma luterana, il valzer delle eresie, la moda anabattista; al centro Zenone, il personaggio filosofo, alchimista, medico, che cela in realtà semplicemente l’uomo imprigionato nella sua finitezza umana, l’uomo bisognoso di conoscere, di esplorare i propri limiti per giungere alla piena consapevolezza e conoscenza di sé, al pieno controllo, paradossalmente, se poi si pensa al sublime epilogo di questa vita e di questa straordinaria opera. Pagine intense, che giungono al culmine e si fanno perdonare l’eccessivo zelo storico che permea lo scritto, a tratti appesantendolo e rendendolo di non agile lettura. La Grande Opera, l’opera al nero, - la prima tappa della trasmutazione alchemica necessaria per la creazione della pietra filosofale- e Zenone, pellegrino tutta la vita perché “chi sarà tanto insensato da morire senza aver fatto almeno il giro della propria prigione?�. Zenone, spinto dalla necessità di appurare se “l’ignoranza, la paura, la stupidità e la superstizione verbale regnano anche fuori di qui�, protagonista di un lungo viaggio attraverso il suo tempo, la conoscenza, se stesso. Una figura storica fittizia, dice la stessa Yourcenar nella nota dell’autore, ben diversa da una figura storica ricreata come l’imperatore Adriano delle celeberrime Memorie, che necessita più che mai di una perfetta collocazione temporale affinché le date della sua vita coincidano in maniera esatta col substrato storico attestato. Tutte le “verità� alle quali Zenone giunge dopo incessanti e travagliate oscillazione dell’anima e del pensiero sono poi le medesime intenzioni che hanno caratterizzato vita e opera di Leonardo, Harvey, Paracelso e tanti altri. Una sintesi perfetta del pensiero del secolo i cui fatti storici interessano le vite parallele degli altri personaggi, fornendo un’eccellente ambientazione di sfondo. Niente è lasciato al caso, tutto è riconducibile a precise fonti documentarie, la trama langue, rari gli spunti narrativi di vivo interesse, quasi un substrato narrativo sincopato, a volte monco; un viaggio ostico che chi saprà intraprendere vedrà culminare nelle due- tre pagine finali di raro pathos e di intensità descrittiva tale da riabilitare l’intero scritto col dubbio di essere davanti a un sapere tale da poter solo lasciare inebetiti. Per appassionati di storia , per cultori della materia, per curiosi che volessero approfondire l’affascinate età moderna.
January 26, 2012
Mysteriously satisfying. As far as historical recreations go, something like the polar opposite of Deadwood or Amalgamation Polka: the past is interesting not because of its excessive color and profuse cocksucking but because of the relentless nature of its blandness. I find myself puzzling over how exactly Y manages this. She gets a certain amount of momentum from establishing and then abjuring scenes; everything is setup for more setup, narrative for more narrative, until you realize that, like most narrative-heavy books (Bolano's 2666 is another good example), the real hero of this story is fate, meaning Death, the end (The End) to which all good things must come. Which makes you think, "Okay, I guess it's okay if none of the normally exciting things happen, since really this is a book [like its protagonist] that sees excitement as a sort of cop out, excuse, avoidance". Emotional syncopation, maybe? (or "noncopation": removing the stress from the score entirely) And yet I have to admit The Abyss ends up resembling someone I never thought it would during the first 2/3rds: Albert Camus. Y's hero makes a legitimate, believable stand, and does indeed feel more heroic for doing so. Relentlessly unhistrionic.
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September 13, 2022"Tako se rešetaju naši čitaoci: glupi nam veruju, oni još gluplji nas napuštaju smatrajući da smo gluplji od njih, a oni što ostanu snalaze se u tom lavirintu, nauče da preskoče ili obiđu prepreku laži. Baš bih se iznenadio kad se čak i u najsvetijim tekstovima ne bi našlo takvih lukavstava. Kad se tako čita, svaka knjiga postaje tajanstvena poruka."
(Zenonovo ratno lukavstvo, str. 85-86)
Ovo je tip knjige koju je nezahvalno ocenjivati ili o njoj pisati brzu, nepromišljenu recenziju. M. Jursenar je izrazito studiozna književnica i kod nje ništa nije prepušteno slučaju. Priče pisane u mladosti je decenijama dorađivala. Mnoge su godinama sazrevale u građu za romane. Knjige je opremala beleškama za čitanje, a gotovo svakoj je precizno opredeljivala mesto u sistemu svog književni opus.
Pojednostavljeno rečeno, njena dominantna tema je pronicanje u ono stalno i nepromenljivo u čoveku, i to obično istražuje u kontrastu istorijske pozadine (života) koji je, po prirodi stvari, u neprekidnom i nepredvidljivom kretanju.
Biografi kažu i da je Zenona, glavnog junaka ovog romana, izrazito emotivno doživljavala, često mu se u književnim diskusijama vraćala, sa njim se lično poistovećivala.
‘Crna mena� je pametan, lep, jezički virtuozan roman (fantastično preveden), mada, izvesno namerno, ne i preterano uzbudljiv za čitanje. Konstruisan tako da čitaoca često usporava, vraća i tera na razmišljanje.
Radi se o knjizi koju pročitaš i shvatiš da bi pametnije bilo čitati je ponovo.
U pitanju je široka panorama dekada (1510-1569), prelomnih, za rađanje moderne nauke, analitičkog rezona, savremenog (teskobnog) osećanja sveta:
�...filozof se zabavljao iscrtavanjem karte ljudskih mišljenja leta Gospodnjeg 1569. bar u pogledu onih neobičnih oblasti u kojima je njegov duh boravio. Kopernikov sistem crkva nije osudila � ali tvrdnja koja se sastoji u postavlju Sunca umesto Zemlje u središte sveta � ipak vređa i Aristotela, i Bibliju � Zenon je po sebi znao u kojoj meri Zemlja u pokretu krši navike koje je svako od nas izgradio da bi mogao da živi. � Gora od smelosti zamenjivanja Zemlje Suncem bila je Demokritova greška: verovanje u beskrajnost svetova, koje čak i Suncu oduzima povlašćeno mesto i poriče postojanje jednog središta � Averoesova greška, pretpostavka o božanstvu rasprostrtom svuda unutar večnog sveta, kao da je vernika lišavala utehe boga stvorenog prema ljudskom obličju, čija su milost ili gnev isključivo čoveku namenjeni. Večnost duše, Origenova greška, izazvala je gnušanje, jer je skoro ni na šta svodila neposrednu sadašnjost: čovek je pristajao da se pred njim otvori srećna ili nesrećna besmrtnost za koju je odgovoran, ali ne i da se na sve strane prostire neka hladna večnost u kojoj on bitiše ne postojeći…� (227-228)
Roman je načičkan likovima (poput Bošove slike “Vrt uživanja� na koju kao svoju inspiraciju upućuje i sama M. Jursenar u svojim beleškama), a celo to mnoštvo, zapravo je pozadina hronike jednog života - gladnog - i mističnog, i naučnog znanja. Glavnog junaka Zenona pratimo na tragalačkom putu samoostvarivanja, a na kraju i na trasi ultimativnog osvajanja slobode ličnog izbora.
Margerit Jursenar spada u one umetnike pred čijim pisanjem malo ko ne uviđa da pred sobom ima nešto “važno�. Njene knjige bi možda valjalo čitati redom kojim je pisala pošto ih povezuju, ne fabula ili likovi, već dominantni motivi, odnosno njene, kroz vreme iste, problematske preokupacije.
Prvo rane priče u kojima se uhodavala kao pisac, “Hadrijanove memoare� obavezno, potom “Crnu menu�, pa “Kao voda kad teče�, a na kraju eseje i autobiografsku fikciju.
September 12, 2016
Opera negra ("l'oeuvre au noir" the french title better than the abyss) is the first stage of the transformation alchemist to gold. We use the most vulgar matter not differencied. It will be followed by works with the white and the red. Zénon, physician, alchemist are shared between two times the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, between Aristote and Plato. But on the metaphysical level, this alchemist transformation is also that of man who progresses on the way of knowledge.
The end is tragic but did the death gain? For Zénon which exceeded for a long time the work with the black, it is the ultimate sublimation. The novel takes on a metaphorical dimension. Then I think to a sentence of Goethe : "Die and becomes!"
in the life, it is necessary to die to certains things to rebirth to others.
The end is tragic but did the death gain? For Zénon which exceeded for a long time the work with the black, it is the ultimate sublimation. The novel takes on a metaphorical dimension. Then I think to a sentence of Goethe : "Die and becomes!"
in the life, it is necessary to die to certains things to rebirth to others.
July 15, 2016
Μεσαιωνικό μυθιστόρημα που πραγματεύεται τη σχέση Εκκλησίας-αθεΐας.Ο θάνατος του άθεου από τον σκοταδισμό της θρησκείας σε κάνει να αναρωτιέσαι αν αυτό ήταν φαινόμενο που περιοριζόταν την εποχή του Μεσαίωνα και της Ιεράς Εξέτασης ή αν έχει επιβιώσει και στη σημερινή εποχή υπό άλλη βέβαια μορφή (πιο συμβολική).
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November 17, 2024Uskovitlani povesni odsečak (1510-1569) koji razularen mlati, prostreljuje, veša, spaljuje ili (zlo)upotrebljava na različite načine, pripuštajući na šta god stigne svoja četiri konjanika, bezobziran je za sve likove ovog romana. Istorija je u "Crnoj meni" koloplet imena i njihove smene, a nìska smrti, posebice onih okončavanja glavnom junaku važnih, druge bi romansijere podstakla (ili priterala) da se razmahnu i pirlitaju, i da dramatičnije i sa većim saučešćem akcentuju i da... promaše. Jursenar te smrti istini za volju ne preleće, ali svoje pripovedanje prosejava u skladu sa onim gorepotcrtanim, beslovesno-mahnitim povesnim, u brzim i ovlašnim pa opet delikatnim potezima. Jer postojati to je jezditi na dimu.
Korelativni je utisak i da je protagonista (onaj čiji životni vek zaprema ono 1510-1569) otuđen, ovlašan i ravnodušno nehajan u odnosu na sve ono što... pa recimo, nije na putu njegove samoizgradnje - poglavito porodični milje - premda bi takva ograda istodobno mogla biti fasada duha kojom se štiti. Tako će lako prominuti susret s polusestrom, saznanje o smrti roditelja,... Stvar perspektive, reljefnog pristupa, ledene dobrote, hladne ljubavi i suzdržanijeg humanizma svakako. Pa opet negdeveć plutaju i ovakvi reci: "Treba voleti nekog da bi se primetilo koliko je sramotno što čovek umire."
A on, Zenon, u impostaciji sveukupnosti znanja, ponajpre se bavi slobodnom mišlju i njenom tekućom granicom, "opasnom" rabotom koja je retko kada poželjna i umesna jer, primerice, "Znanje i razmišljanje nisu dovoljni[...] ukoliko se ne pretvaraju u moć." U doba kada se preskače iz trulog čamca katoličanstva u bušni čamac reformacije, iz oružanog mira u razulareni rat, i obratno, i kada se "Rečima istrčava običan glupak", ali i pojmovi umiru kao ljudi, uzus je biti nevidljiv, skrivati se iza lažnih imena, fluidnih CV-eva i samopodmetati glasine o sebi. Wanted man i wanting man. Otud je "Mena" narativ koji celishodnošću putovanja svog junaka i ceni plaćenoj za to - ali i kroz bićâ svog vremena u nanosima 18. veka - svedoči i o rađanju moderne subjektivnosti, o razgradnji, stvaranju i kristalizaciji, te premrežavanju i strujanju različitih misaonih i(li) ideoloških koncepata na razmeđi skepticizma i vere, i prožimanju hermetičkih učenja (alhemije i astrologije) sa scijentizmom, teološkim, deističkim, ateističkim idejama... Junak je, međutim, braneći se i od vlastite izričitosti i odsečnosti onoga DA i onoga NE, već dovoljno promućuran da se sačuva i da od istine ne stvori sebi idola:"više sam voleo da joj ostavim ono skromnije ime: tačnost." Jursenar ga i koncipira imajući u vidu, primerice, davinčijevsku ingenioznost i erazmovsku tolerantnu ironičnost koje su put na vetrometini. [Uh, ovo bi mi tek prileglo tokom druge godine studija kao budali šamar. Avaj "Put kojim [se] krećem nikad više neće ovuda proći.", mada "Verovatno bi me i ono dovelo do iste tačke, samo drugim putem."]
Zato je na sličan način i rečenica pokretljiva poput geografske mobilnosti protagoniste koji je prošao i sveta i veka - ovaj izraz urastao je u Zenona - i njegove duhovne preobrazbe koja je paradoksalna, jer je i dovršena i nedovršiva. [#pogodištosetakozovem] Zapravo, čitava kompozicija i naracija dišu po alhemijskom principu "solve et coagula", u dobrom razmeru istorijsko-događajnih i umstvujućih (dijaloških) deonica, do konačnog ispuštanja. Život se, naravno, gubi onda kada se ketman obelodani i kada se od pokretljivosti odustane. Dosta je bilo, a i dokle više! Uostalom: "Čovek nije slobodan sve dok živi."
Evo čoveka da ga ljudi ubiju. Osim što će se u ironičnoj subverziji nigreda spaliti leš. Ne, i čovek.
Korelativni je utisak i da je protagonista (onaj čiji životni vek zaprema ono 1510-1569) otuđen, ovlašan i ravnodušno nehajan u odnosu na sve ono što... pa recimo, nije na putu njegove samoizgradnje - poglavito porodični milje - premda bi takva ograda istodobno mogla biti fasada duha kojom se štiti. Tako će lako prominuti susret s polusestrom, saznanje o smrti roditelja,... Stvar perspektive, reljefnog pristupa, ledene dobrote, hladne ljubavi i suzdržanijeg humanizma svakako. Pa opet negdeveć plutaju i ovakvi reci: "Treba voleti nekog da bi se primetilo koliko je sramotno što čovek umire."
A on, Zenon, u impostaciji sveukupnosti znanja, ponajpre se bavi slobodnom mišlju i njenom tekućom granicom, "opasnom" rabotom koja je retko kada poželjna i umesna jer, primerice, "Znanje i razmišljanje nisu dovoljni[...] ukoliko se ne pretvaraju u moć." U doba kada se preskače iz trulog čamca katoličanstva u bušni čamac reformacije, iz oružanog mira u razulareni rat, i obratno, i kada se "Rečima istrčava običan glupak", ali i pojmovi umiru kao ljudi, uzus je biti nevidljiv, skrivati se iza lažnih imena, fluidnih CV-eva i samopodmetati glasine o sebi. Wanted man i wanting man. Otud je "Mena" narativ koji celishodnošću putovanja svog junaka i ceni plaćenoj za to - ali i kroz bićâ svog vremena u nanosima 18. veka - svedoči i o rađanju moderne subjektivnosti, o razgradnji, stvaranju i kristalizaciji, te premrežavanju i strujanju različitih misaonih i(li) ideoloških koncepata na razmeđi skepticizma i vere, i prožimanju hermetičkih učenja (alhemije i astrologije) sa scijentizmom, teološkim, deističkim, ateističkim idejama... Junak je, međutim, braneći se i od vlastite izričitosti i odsečnosti onoga DA i onoga NE, već dovoljno promućuran da se sačuva i da od istine ne stvori sebi idola:"više sam voleo da joj ostavim ono skromnije ime: tačnost." Jursenar ga i koncipira imajući u vidu, primerice, davinčijevsku ingenioznost i erazmovsku tolerantnu ironičnost koje su put na vetrometini. [Uh, ovo bi mi tek prileglo tokom druge godine studija kao budali šamar. Avaj "Put kojim [se] krećem nikad više neće ovuda proći.", mada "Verovatno bi me i ono dovelo do iste tačke, samo drugim putem."]
Zato je na sličan način i rečenica pokretljiva poput geografske mobilnosti protagoniste koji je prošao i sveta i veka - ovaj izraz urastao je u Zenona - i njegove duhovne preobrazbe koja je paradoksalna, jer je i dovršena i nedovršiva. [#pogodištosetakozovem] Zapravo, čitava kompozicija i naracija dišu po alhemijskom principu "solve et coagula", u dobrom razmeru istorijsko-događajnih i umstvujućih (dijaloških) deonica, do konačnog ispuštanja. Život se, naravno, gubi onda kada se ketman obelodani i kada se od pokretljivosti odustane. Dosta je bilo, a i dokle više! Uostalom: "Čovek nije slobodan sve dok živi."
Evo čoveka da ga ljudi ubiju. Osim što će se u ironičnoj subverziji nigreda spaliti leš. Ne, i čovek.
May 7, 2017
Marvellous...simply marvellous!
The action takes place between 1510 and 1569, in Europe, mainly in Bruges and the historical reconstitution is rigorous. By that time, Flanders was a very violent place. The Reformation, the birth of modern science, the beginnings of industrialisation originated intrigues , peasant revolts and religious wars. Zeno, the alchemist, healer and philosopher hero, represents these new ideas, these new possibilities. He is one of the most "real fictional" characters I have ever come across. He was inspired by Da Vinci, Giordano Bruno, Galilei, Copernicus, Paracelsus and others , but mainly by Erasmus of Rotherdam, also a bastard son. And like some of these free spirits Zeno's ending is tragic.
The action takes place between 1510 and 1569, in Europe, mainly in Bruges and the historical reconstitution is rigorous. By that time, Flanders was a very violent place. The Reformation, the birth of modern science, the beginnings of industrialisation originated intrigues , peasant revolts and religious wars. Zeno, the alchemist, healer and philosopher hero, represents these new ideas, these new possibilities. He is one of the most "real fictional" characters I have ever come across. He was inspired by Da Vinci, Giordano Bruno, Galilei, Copernicus, Paracelsus and others , but mainly by Erasmus of Rotherdam, also a bastard son. And like some of these free spirits Zeno's ending is tragic.
October 13, 2021
Zenon bir tarihi roman, kurmaca kişilik ile yaratılan altmış yıllı içeren bir Ortaçağ romanı. Zenon’un din adamlığıyla başlayan, simyacı, hekimlik ve nihayetinde filozof olarak devam eden yaşamı yazar M. Yourcenar tarafından aynı yüz yılda yer alan gerçek kişiliklere (Paracelsus, Kopernic, Ambroise Pare, Vesalius, Servetius, G. Bruno) bağlayarak çok ilginç bir kurgulama yapılmış.
Zenon kilise ile reform arasındaki çekişmede tanrıtanımaz olduğu halde daha özgür düşünceli bulduğu katoliklerin yanındaymış gibi anlatılmış. Daha önce okuduğum Hadrianus’un Anıları’ndan farklı olarak bu tarihi romanın kahramanı Zenon’un kurgu olmasına karşın daha inandırıcı ve ayrıntılı bir hikayeye sahip olmasıdır. Buna rağmen çok sayıda makam, ünvan, kişi ve yer isminin olması, kitabı okurken zorluyor.
Ayrıca o dönem için çok önemli olan mezhep çatışmaları, tarikat sapkınlıkları, engizisyon, veba salgını, simyaya karşı olan ilgi ve karşıtlık, tıptaki gelişmeler, bilimsel buluşların ayak seslerinin duyulması, feodalite ve benzeri birçok konunun romana sıkıştırılması yarattığı zenginliğin yanında bilgi bombardımanı da oluşturmuş ki bu durum da kitabı okurken okuyucuyu yoruyor. Latince deyimlerin anlamlarının verilmemiş olması da büyük eksiklik.
Herşeye karşın çok iyi araştırılarak yazılmış, emek verilmiş, iyi bir eser.
Zenon kilise ile reform arasındaki çekişmede tanrıtanımaz olduğu halde daha özgür düşünceli bulduğu katoliklerin yanındaymış gibi anlatılmış. Daha önce okuduğum Hadrianus’un Anıları’ndan farklı olarak bu tarihi romanın kahramanı Zenon’un kurgu olmasına karşın daha inandırıcı ve ayrıntılı bir hikayeye sahip olmasıdır. Buna rağmen çok sayıda makam, ünvan, kişi ve yer isminin olması, kitabı okurken zorluyor.
Ayrıca o dönem için çok önemli olan mezhep çatışmaları, tarikat sapkınlıkları, engizisyon, veba salgını, simyaya karşı olan ilgi ve karşıtlık, tıptaki gelişmeler, bilimsel buluşların ayak seslerinin duyulması, feodalite ve benzeri birçok konunun romana sıkıştırılması yarattığı zenginliğin yanında bilgi bombardımanı da oluşturmuş ki bu durum da kitabı okurken okuyucuyu yoruyor. Latince deyimlerin anlamlarının verilmemiş olması da büyük eksiklik.
Herşeye karşın çok iyi araştırılarak yazılmış, emek verilmiş, iyi bir eser.
January 2, 2018
Je voulais commencer l'année 2018 en finissant ce roman incontournable de M. Yourcenar.
Quelle écriture! Une richesse dans la narration, aux descriptions si froides et pourtant si riches. Il faut toujours quelques lignes pour se replonger dans l'histoire et d'ailleurs il m'aura fallu plus de 3 mois pour le lire sans en perdre une miette et comprendre le déroulé des evenements du première et second plan.
L'histoire en elle même n'est pas très originale et suit la progression de deux personnages que tout separe et oppose. Mais l'érudition de l'auteure sur cette époque du haut moyen âge est incroyable. On en apprend énormément sur la vie, les mœurs et les croyances.
Je reste ébahie par ce livre écrit il y a 50ans, qui nous donne cette impression d'être là depuis des siècles. Un classique Intemporel!
Il fait partie des livres français qu'il faut avoir lu.
Quelle écriture! Une richesse dans la narration, aux descriptions si froides et pourtant si riches. Il faut toujours quelques lignes pour se replonger dans l'histoire et d'ailleurs il m'aura fallu plus de 3 mois pour le lire sans en perdre une miette et comprendre le déroulé des evenements du première et second plan.
L'histoire en elle même n'est pas très originale et suit la progression de deux personnages que tout separe et oppose. Mais l'érudition de l'auteure sur cette époque du haut moyen âge est incroyable. On en apprend énormément sur la vie, les mœurs et les croyances.
Je reste ébahie par ce livre écrit il y a 50ans, qui nous donne cette impression d'être là depuis des siècles. Un classique Intemporel!
Il fait partie des livres français qu'il faut avoir lu.
December 11, 2021
An amazingly well written historical novel that through the main protagonist Zeno guides the reader through a period of renaissance and refers to political and theological disputes of that time and also philosophical questions, mechanical scientific and medical theories and discoveries!
March 20, 2017
Ας φανταστούμε τους χρόνους της πανώλης. Οτιδήποτε υπερβαίνει τους απτούς φυσικούς νόμους πρέπει να υπόκειται στην πίστη. Διαφορετικά αποπέμπεται και οδηγείται σε φριχτές τιμωρίες. Και όμως υπάρχουν κάποιοι φτωχοδιάολοι κυνηγημένοι που αναπτύσσουν ιδέες και προσπαθούν να δουν γιατί κάτι είναι έτσι κι όχι αλλιώς.
Ένας υποθετικός τέτοιος φτωχοδιάολος ξεκινάει ένα ταξίδι στον κόσμο της γνώσης και των ιδεών με μόνα εφόδια να αρνηθεί ό,τι γνωρίζει με σκοπό να καταλήξει σ' αυτό ή στα αντίθετα του με ανοιχτα μάτια αναγνωρίζοντας μόνο ένα κόσμο ελεύθερο από οποιαδήποτε θεολογική χροιά και με σεβασμό στο όποιο άτομο μεμονωμένα αλλά όχι στους όχλους. Γιατρός που δεν αρνείται τη θεραπεία σε κανέναν περισσότερο από την ανάγκη να παρατηρήσει ώστε οι ψηλαφήσεις του να ανοίξουν νέους δρόμους στην επιστήμη.
Ένας κόσμος ιδεών κυνηγημένος απ' το φόβο της θρησκείας να χάσει την εξουσία και της εξουσίας να χάσει την κυριαρχία στις μάζες. Ο Μακιαβέλλι άλλωστε δεν ήταν που είπε πως υπάρχουν τριών τύπων μυαλα: τα σκεπτόμενα που αντλούν από ίδια μέσα, εκείνα που μόλις τους δείξεις το δρόμο αναγνωρίζουν κι ακολουθούν κι εκείνα που δεν είναι ικανά για τίποτα απ τα δύο. Οι ιδέες, οι ανακαλύψεις, οι στοχασμοί απευθύνονται σε όλους και παντ��ύ υπάρχουν τόσο τα πρώτα οσο και τα δεύτερου τύπου μυαλά, ικανά να αναποδογυρίσουν τον κόσμο, να ανατρέψουν. Και ποιος θα το ήθελε αυτό, τότε ή τώρα; Άλλωστε ο σκοταδισμός δεν είναι θέμα χρονολογικό αλλά ηθικό κι ανθρώπινο, πάνω απ όλα όμως άχρονο κι η Ιστορία διαρκώς επαναλαμβάνεται σε χώρους αδιάφορους και σε χρόνους που κάνει να φαντάζουν ίδιοι.
Ωστόσο, κάθε ταξίδι έχει σταθμούς και κάποτε τελειώνει. Μπορεί το απάγκιο αυτό να ταυτίζεται με το νόστο, ή όχι αλλά κάθε κυνηγημένος όση αδρεναλίνη, φόβο, ταραχή, αδημονία κι αν νιώθει, κάπου κάπου αν όχι πάντοτε αποτελεί θύμα καιροσκόπων που από τη θέση του ασφαλούς εκμεταλλεύονται το νόμο όσο και το θύμα. Με λίγα λόγια κάποτε η κούραση μέσα μας γίνεται δυσβάσταχτη και μέρη που μπορεί να μην ήταν επιλογές εξ' αρχής τελικά μας ζέσταναν και παρά τη λογική που μπορεί να προτάσσει "φύγε πάλι" μένουμε, παρά τις συνέπειες ή ακριβώς γιατί με τον ερχομό τους όλα θα τελειώσουν σχεδόν αρμονικά κι όλα θα ησυχάσουν, η τελικά θα προλάβει να σωθεί η αμμος κι ο τελευταίος κόκκος απο τη μία της κλεψύδρας να πέσει στην άλλη. Όλα τελειώνουν κι όλα περνούν.
Γοητευτικό ταξίδι που όμως έχει ένα εγκυκλοπαιδικά, διδακτικό απόμακρο ύφος που με ξένισε και με κούρασε.
Ένας υποθετικός τέτοιος φτωχοδιάολος ξεκινάει ένα ταξίδι στον κόσμο της γνώσης και των ιδεών με μόνα εφόδια να αρνηθεί ό,τι γνωρίζει με σκοπό να καταλήξει σ' αυτό ή στα αντίθετα του με ανοιχτα μάτια αναγνωρίζοντας μόνο ένα κόσμο ελεύθερο από οποιαδήποτε θεολογική χροιά και με σεβασμό στο όποιο άτομο μεμονωμένα αλλά όχι στους όχλους. Γιατρός που δεν αρνείται τη θεραπεία σε κανέναν περισσότερο από την ανάγκη να παρατηρήσει ώστε οι ψηλαφήσεις του να ανοίξουν νέους δρόμους στην επιστήμη.
Ένας κόσμος ιδεών κυνηγημένος απ' το φόβο της θρησκείας να χάσει την εξουσία και της εξουσίας να χάσει την κυριαρχία στις μάζες. Ο Μακιαβέλλι άλλωστε δεν ήταν που είπε πως υπάρχουν τριών τύπων μυαλα: τα σκεπτόμενα που αντλούν από ίδια μέσα, εκείνα που μόλις τους δείξεις το δρόμο αναγνωρίζουν κι ακολουθούν κι εκείνα που δεν είναι ικανά για τίποτα απ τα δύο. Οι ιδέες, οι ανακαλύψεις, οι στοχασμοί απευθύνονται σε όλους και παντ��ύ υπάρχουν τόσο τα πρώτα οσο και τα δεύτερου τύπου μυαλά, ικανά να αναποδογυρίσουν τον κόσμο, να ανατρέψουν. Και ποιος θα το ήθελε αυτό, τότε ή τώρα; Άλλωστε ο σκοταδισμός δεν είναι θέμα χρονολογικό αλλά ηθικό κι ανθρώπινο, πάνω απ όλα όμως άχρονο κι η Ιστορία διαρκώς επαναλαμβάνεται σε χώρους αδιάφορους και σε χρόνους που κάνει να φαντάζουν ίδιοι.
Ωστόσο, κάθε ταξίδι έχει σταθμούς και κάποτε τελειώνει. Μπορεί το απάγκιο αυτό να ταυτίζεται με το νόστο, ή όχι αλλά κάθε κυνηγημένος όση αδρεναλίνη, φόβο, ταραχή, αδημονία κι αν νιώθει, κάπου κάπου αν όχι πάντοτε αποτελεί θύμα καιροσκόπων που από τη θέση του ασφαλούς εκμεταλλεύονται το νόμο όσο και το θύμα. Με λίγα λόγια κάποτε η κούραση μέσα μας γίνεται δυσβάσταχτη και μέρη που μπορεί να μην ήταν επιλογές εξ' αρχής τελικά μας ζέσταναν και παρά τη λογική που μπορεί να προτάσσει "φύγε πάλι" μένουμε, παρά τις συνέπειες ή ακριβώς γιατί με τον ερχομό τους όλα θα τελειώσουν σχεδόν αρμονικά κι όλα θα ησυχάσουν, η τελικά θα προλάβει να σωθεί η αμμος κι ο τελευταίος κόκκος απο τη μία της κλεψύδρας να πέσει στην άλλη. Όλα τελειώνουν κι όλα περνούν.
Γοητευτικό ταξίδι που όμως έχει ένα εγκυκλοπαιδικά, διδακτικό απόμακρο ύφος που με ξένισε και με κούρασε.
December 15, 2020
I loved , so borrowed another Marguerite Yourcenar novel as soon as I spotted it in the library. Oddly, 'Zeno of Bruges' reminded me more of than , although that might be because I read the former much more recently. It follows the life of Zeno, a doctor, alchemist, and intellectual whose wide-ranging curiosity makes him a dangerous heretic in 16th century Europe. Yourcenar is a magnificent writer and period is evoked brilliantly. The narrative is full of detail and texture, giving the feeling that mainland Europe is in the very early stages of a transition. According to , while this novel takes place capitalism was germinating in rural England. In his youth, Zeno takes an interest in the mechanisation of weaving. As he gets older, his focus shifts to medicine and philosophy. However, the structure of the book gives relatively little time to the prime of Zeno's life and his travels. The initial section covers his early years, the second his midlife working as a doctor in Bruges, and the third the end of his life. This made for a somewhat peculiar pace, as the narrative rushed through what I expected to be the most substantive part. It also gave most of the book a solemn and elegiac tone, as Zeno looked back on the past and contemplated death ahead. His consistent disgust at violence and cruelty are likewise powerful but relentlessly uncheerful to read.
Yourcenar's translated prose is glorious and full of striking images like this:
An early chapter titled 'Death in Münster' includes a brief but extraordinary account of the Münster Anabaptist rebellion of 1534-5, which I came across in . It does not involve Zeno, however his mother Hilzonda takes part and is executed in the suppression of the uprising.
Zeno is a very interesting character: a man seemingly out of step with his time, with many acquaintances but few close friends, both entranced by the world and jaded by how humans behave in it. I did not find his voice quite as compelling as Hadrian's, perhaps in part because he does not speak directly to the reader. Nonetheless, this is an involving historical novel to savour.
Yourcenar's translated prose is glorious and full of striking images like this:
An object brought from Italy was hanging on the wall of the small antechamber, a Florentine mirror in a tortoise-shell frame, formed from a combination of some twenty little convex mirrors hexagonal in shape, like the cells of a beehive, and each mirror enclosed, in its turn, by a narrow border which had once been the shell of a living creature. Zeno looked at himself there in the gray light of a Parisian dawn. What he saw was twenty figures compressed and reduced by the laws of optics, twenty images of a man in a fur bonnet, of haggard and sallow complexion, with gleaming eyes which were themselves mirrors. This man in flight, enclosed within a world of his own, separated from others like himself who were also in flight in worlds parallel to his, recalled to him the hypothesis of the Greek Democritus, about an infinite series of identical universes in each of which lives and dies imprisoned a series of philosophers.
The fantasy evoked a bitter smile. The twenty little figures of the mirror smiled, too, each alone in his frame. He then saw them turn their heads half away and direct themselves toward the door.
An early chapter titled 'Death in Münster' includes a brief but extraordinary account of the Münster Anabaptist rebellion of 1534-5, which I came across in . It does not involve Zeno, however his mother Hilzonda takes part and is executed in the suppression of the uprising.
The small citadel of the Just, encircled by the Catholic troops, lived in a very fever of God. The spur to their courage was the open-air preaching held each evening. Bockhold, the favourite Saint, pleased them all with his sermons, for he knew how to season the gory images drawn from the Apocalypse with jokes from the actor's trade. Mingled with the shrill voices of the women, imploring air from their Father in Heaven, rose the groans of the sick and of those first wounded in the siege, who lay on these warm summer nights under the arcades of the square. Hilzonda was one of the most ardent among the worshippers: standing tall, elongated like a flame, the mother of Zeno would denounce the ignominies of Rome. Her eyes, filled with frightful visions, would cloud with tears; suddenly collapsing like a too slender taper and sinking to the ground, she would week in tender contrition, and in the desire to die.
Zeno is a very interesting character: a man seemingly out of step with his time, with many acquaintances but few close friends, both entranced by the world and jaded by how humans behave in it. I did not find his voice quite as compelling as Hadrian's, perhaps in part because he does not speak directly to the reader. Nonetheless, this is an involving historical novel to savour.
April 21, 2021
I read this book 30 years ago, but it made no lasting impression, back then. The second reading, I started in French, but after 160 pages I had to switch to a Dutch translation: Yourcenar uses a vocabulary that is quite out of the common, and in addition the book is frequently very "hermetic" (deliberately, given the alchemist-like character of the protagonist Zeno ?). This is also my main criticism: some dialogues, meditations, reflections of Zeno are hard to follow. Also the structure of the book (with a very long prologue giving a picture of the 16th c.) is not flawless. But in exchange for the hard reading process you get a magisterial historical novel, which really brings to life the bloody-crazy-horribly violent sixteenth century. And finally, there is the story of the scholar Zeno as Everyman or Wandering Jew looking for real life, for truth, and especially for himself. An important book and I'm sure I'm going to reread it again.
(rating 3.5 stars)
(rating 3.5 stars)
July 12, 2019
Opus Nigrum es una fórmula alquímica que designa la fase de separación y disolución de la sustancia; aunque también se entiende como un símbolo de las pruebas del espíritu que se libera de rutinas y prejuicios. Este concepto es el hilo conductor de la novela que corre a través de la vida del protagonista llamado Zenón.
Es una lectura ardua que requiere de un constante esfuerzo de concentración y de abstracción para seguirle la pista a las cavilaciones de Zenón. En ocasiones es difícil de comprender qué es lo que nos quiere comunicar la autora a través de las andanzas y peripecias de Zenón quien es una especie de médico, alquimista, clérigo, inventor, filósofo y astrólogo del Renacimiento. Este personaje ficticio evoca a grandes personalidades de la historia de esos tiempos, como por ejemplo Paracelso, Copérnico, Leonardo, Giordano Bruno, pero sobre todo a Erasmo.
La autora posee un estilo enciclopédico, filosófico y erudito, cubierto por un brillante velo de poesía. Utiliza ampliamente giros e inflexiones del lenguaje y frases en latín para desarrollar su relato en el cual incluye algunas cuestiones ontológicas lo que hace bastante difícil el que nos podamos abrir camino por esas cuestas que la novelista nos ha puesto para poder comprender cabalmente las búsquedas vitales, cognitivas y espirituales de Zenón que lo lleven a un mejor entendimiento del mundo y de la vida.
Zenón, vive en el siglo XVI en plena agitación religiosa provocada por la Reforma Protestante que es uno de los momentos decisivos de la humanidad en el que se da una lucha frontal y resuelta entre la tradición religiosa y el pecaminoso mundo del conocimiento y la ciencia que llevan al ateísmo y que tiran por tierra todas las creencias religiosas.
Dotado de grandes capacidades y lleno de curiosidades intelectuales, este filósofo y médico flamenco se constituye en un pensador libre que no se ata a ninguna idea religiosa preconcebida, sumergiéndose en un mundo de contradicciones y certezas buscando siempre un conocimiento superior sin importarle las consecuencias.
El libro se divide en tres grandes partes llamadas: La Vida errante, la Vida inmóvil y la Prisión, nombres muy sugerentes que obviamente tiene que ver con la descripción de las etapas de la vida de Zenón. El estilo de Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987) se enseñorea de nuevo en esta novela llena de erudición y de cierto canto poético a lo que agrega grandes y poderosas dosis de documentación e imaginación.
El relato abarca los aproximadamente 60 años que vive el protagonista y a quien lo acompañan otros notables personajes quienes nos llevan a múltiples ciudades de aquella Europa renacentista a donde viaja Zenón en sus constantes búsquedas. Destaca la ciudad de Brujas como principio y fin de su periplo, así como algunos hechos históricos que la autora plasma magistralmente.
Es de destacar el capítulo histórico dedicado a la rebelión de los anabaptistas en Münster acaecido en 1534, en dicha rebelión a esta ciudad se le proclamaba como la Nueva Jerusalén, entre otras cosas.
Otro hecho histórico notable es la represión que por causas religiosas lleva a cabo España en Flandes a través del Duque de Alba y donde es sacrificado, entre otros, el Duque de Egmont hombre noble y entrañable que nos remite a Goethe y a Beethoven.
Zenón nos es presentado como un hombre que hace tabla rasa de las ideas y prejuicios de su época para dejarse llevar por su pensamiento libremente.
Me hubiera gustado aprovechar más esta novela pero creo que no la abordé en el momento correcto, sin embargo al final del libro se incluye una "Nota de la Autora" que me proporcionó valiosa información para una mejor comprensión y aprovechamiento de esta lectura.
Es una lectura ardua que requiere de un constante esfuerzo de concentración y de abstracción para seguirle la pista a las cavilaciones de Zenón. En ocasiones es difícil de comprender qué es lo que nos quiere comunicar la autora a través de las andanzas y peripecias de Zenón quien es una especie de médico, alquimista, clérigo, inventor, filósofo y astrólogo del Renacimiento. Este personaje ficticio evoca a grandes personalidades de la historia de esos tiempos, como por ejemplo Paracelso, Copérnico, Leonardo, Giordano Bruno, pero sobre todo a Erasmo.
La autora posee un estilo enciclopédico, filosófico y erudito, cubierto por un brillante velo de poesía. Utiliza ampliamente giros e inflexiones del lenguaje y frases en latín para desarrollar su relato en el cual incluye algunas cuestiones ontológicas lo que hace bastante difícil el que nos podamos abrir camino por esas cuestas que la novelista nos ha puesto para poder comprender cabalmente las búsquedas vitales, cognitivas y espirituales de Zenón que lo lleven a un mejor entendimiento del mundo y de la vida.
Zenón, vive en el siglo XVI en plena agitación religiosa provocada por la Reforma Protestante que es uno de los momentos decisivos de la humanidad en el que se da una lucha frontal y resuelta entre la tradición religiosa y el pecaminoso mundo del conocimiento y la ciencia que llevan al ateísmo y que tiran por tierra todas las creencias religiosas.
Dotado de grandes capacidades y lleno de curiosidades intelectuales, este filósofo y médico flamenco se constituye en un pensador libre que no se ata a ninguna idea religiosa preconcebida, sumergiéndose en un mundo de contradicciones y certezas buscando siempre un conocimiento superior sin importarle las consecuencias.
El libro se divide en tres grandes partes llamadas: La Vida errante, la Vida inmóvil y la Prisión, nombres muy sugerentes que obviamente tiene que ver con la descripción de las etapas de la vida de Zenón. El estilo de Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987) se enseñorea de nuevo en esta novela llena de erudición y de cierto canto poético a lo que agrega grandes y poderosas dosis de documentación e imaginación.
El relato abarca los aproximadamente 60 años que vive el protagonista y a quien lo acompañan otros notables personajes quienes nos llevan a múltiples ciudades de aquella Europa renacentista a donde viaja Zenón en sus constantes búsquedas. Destaca la ciudad de Brujas como principio y fin de su periplo, así como algunos hechos históricos que la autora plasma magistralmente.
Es de destacar el capítulo histórico dedicado a la rebelión de los anabaptistas en Münster acaecido en 1534, en dicha rebelión a esta ciudad se le proclamaba como la Nueva Jerusalén, entre otras cosas.
Otro hecho histórico notable es la represión que por causas religiosas lleva a cabo España en Flandes a través del Duque de Alba y donde es sacrificado, entre otros, el Duque de Egmont hombre noble y entrañable que nos remite a Goethe y a Beethoven.
Zenón nos es presentado como un hombre que hace tabla rasa de las ideas y prejuicios de su época para dejarse llevar por su pensamiento libremente.
Me hubiera gustado aprovechar más esta novela pero creo que no la abordé en el momento correcto, sin embargo al final del libro se incluye una "Nota de la Autora" que me proporcionó valiosa información para una mejor comprensión y aprovechamiento de esta lectura.
December 7, 2019
Margeruite Yourcenars historischer Roman spielt zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit, zwischen Aberglaube und Vernunft, in der Zeit der Reformation, Glaubenskriege und der Inquisition. Es geht um das Leben und Sterben eines gewissen Zenons, weitgereister Priester, Arzt, Alchemist und Gelehrter, der sich der Aufklärung und dem Humanismus verschrieben hat und letztlich zwischen den Mächten der Vergangenheit und dem Anspruch der Zukunft zerrieben wird.
Zenon ist ein fiktionaler Charakter, zusammengesetzt aus Bestandteilen Leonardo da Vincis, Paracelsus, Erasmus, Kopernikus und noch einem halben Dutzend weniger bekannter Aufklärer, Humanisten und Gelehrten. Beim Bühnenbild und der Requisite ließ sich die Autorin ganz offensichtlich von Pieter Bruegel dem Älteren und Hieronymus Bosch inspirieren. Der historische Hintergrund ist akribisch genau recherchiert und das alles zusammen ergibt eine opulente und interessante Geschichte.
Das Buch hat mir gefallen, hat mich aber nicht wirklich begeistert und ich kann hier nur skizzieren, was mich irritiert hat: Yourcenar schreibt viel ü Zenon und läßt ihn zu wenig agieren. Nebenbei war mir nie ganz klar, ob Zenon selbst (im Sinne eines Gedankenstroms) denkt oder der allwissende Erzähler erzählt, was Zenon denkt. Zenons Charakter ist zwar interessant, schön widersprüchlich und ühaupt nicht klischeehaft, vielleicht ist die Figur aber trotzdem zu konstruiert.
Die Sprache selbst neigt dazu, immer wieder eine altmodisch gespreizte Ausdrucksweise zu bemühen, was einer authentischen Atmosphäre geschuldet sein mag, mir aber nicht glaubwürdig erschien. Das kann aber durchaus an der Übersetzung liegen.
Zwischendurch stoße ich mich an Sätzen wie Allmählich hatte er sich an den Gedanken gewöhnt, Angst zu haben. (Il s'était fait par degré à l'idée d'avoir peur) - Hier wird eindeutig zu viel gedacht und zu wenig gespürt!
Yourcenars Weg, die Ingredentien ihrer Erzählung aus historischen Quellen in Schnippseln collageartig neu zusammenzusetzen, ist sicher spannend und originell, es ist die Durchführung, die meinen Geschmack nicht ganz getroffen hat.
Mehr als 3 Sterne kann ich im Vergleich mit anderen historischen Romanen nicht aufbringen, wie etwa das in der selben Zeit handelnde von Luther Blisset oder die Romane der von mir sprachlich sehr bewunderten Hilary Mantel.
Zenon ist ein fiktionaler Charakter, zusammengesetzt aus Bestandteilen Leonardo da Vincis, Paracelsus, Erasmus, Kopernikus und noch einem halben Dutzend weniger bekannter Aufklärer, Humanisten und Gelehrten. Beim Bühnenbild und der Requisite ließ sich die Autorin ganz offensichtlich von Pieter Bruegel dem Älteren und Hieronymus Bosch inspirieren. Der historische Hintergrund ist akribisch genau recherchiert und das alles zusammen ergibt eine opulente und interessante Geschichte.
Das Buch hat mir gefallen, hat mich aber nicht wirklich begeistert und ich kann hier nur skizzieren, was mich irritiert hat: Yourcenar schreibt viel ü Zenon und läßt ihn zu wenig agieren. Nebenbei war mir nie ganz klar, ob Zenon selbst (im Sinne eines Gedankenstroms) denkt oder der allwissende Erzähler erzählt, was Zenon denkt. Zenons Charakter ist zwar interessant, schön widersprüchlich und ühaupt nicht klischeehaft, vielleicht ist die Figur aber trotzdem zu konstruiert.
Die Sprache selbst neigt dazu, immer wieder eine altmodisch gespreizte Ausdrucksweise zu bemühen, was einer authentischen Atmosphäre geschuldet sein mag, mir aber nicht glaubwürdig erschien. Das kann aber durchaus an der Übersetzung liegen.
Zwischendurch stoße ich mich an Sätzen wie Allmählich hatte er sich an den Gedanken gewöhnt, Angst zu haben. (Il s'était fait par degré à l'idée d'avoir peur) - Hier wird eindeutig zu viel gedacht und zu wenig gespürt!
Yourcenars Weg, die Ingredentien ihrer Erzählung aus historischen Quellen in Schnippseln collageartig neu zusammenzusetzen, ist sicher spannend und originell, es ist die Durchführung, die meinen Geschmack nicht ganz getroffen hat.
Mehr als 3 Sterne kann ich im Vergleich mit anderen historischen Romanen nicht aufbringen, wie etwa das in der selben Zeit handelnde von Luther Blisset oder die Romane der von mir sprachlich sehr bewunderten Hilary Mantel.
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