Hadrian's Memoirs: The Brainchild of Imagination and Empathy

"Hadrian's Memoirs" is a novel by the famous French female writer Margaret. Yusenaar's masterpiece, one of her finest novels, condensed her nearly thirty years of hard work, won major awards and numerous acclaim after publication, and is truly deserved to read today.

Hadrian was one of the Five Wise Men of the Antony era of the Roman Empire. He was in third place.

The first Nerva was elected by the Senate to clean up the mess left by his predecessor, the tyrant Domitian.

Two years later his adopted son Trajan ascended the throne, and he was virtuous and active, conquering Dacia and then Parthia. He was promoted as a future model in terms of moral integrity.

In 117 AD, Hadrian was given great power from Trajan. He was a controversial king, but it was because of the controversy that he was called a true being. According to Margaret, she was initially locked in by a correspondence from Flaubert. Flaubert's original words went like this, "For the gods no longer exist, and Christ ceases to exist, from Cicero to Marco. Aurelius had a unique period during which only one person ever existed. Margaret says she's spent much of her life trying to identify and then describe the man who is unparalleled but connected to everything.

This unparalleled man was Hadrian. But Hadrian belonged to the second century, to the time of Trajan; he belonged to Adriana, to Asia Minor, and he personally inspected all the provinces of Rome; he advocated literature, he revised laws, he participated in military training, all this was far and wide.

Margaret used it for decades, picking it up, putting it down, collecting it, patching it up, a wisp of it.

Margaret said that one must delve into the hidden corners of an object in order to discover the most mundane things and the most universal literary meanings.

The protagonist's secretary, Zorchen, opponent, benefactor Queen Plotina, adoptive Elyus, numerous characters, tangled entanglements, ascension to the throne, counterinsurgency, crusade, post-election, daily entertainment, emotional emotions, physical condition, all need to be covered in a net, how to lay the net, and how to reflect the uniqueness of the protagonist?

The British historian Jimu summarized in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that Hadrian was a great king, a humorous debater, and a tyrant. Therefore, this is a three-dimensional person, he is shrewd and strong, intelligent, there are killings in the country, there is also the humility of the people, decisive and thorough, both insight into the overall situation and scrutiny of the last section, under his rule, the Roman Empire is stable and prosperous, increasingly powerful, such an emperor, because of his ability, naturally has material.

But at the same time, he is still an ordinary person, he has hobbies, he has selfishness, there are emotional ups and downs, there are excessive impulses, there is curiosity and vanity, and there is excessive alertness and suspicion.

Margaret said she wanted to use the form of dialogue to reflect all the voices of the time, but finally did not want Hadrian's voice to be mixed with many shouts. In the end, she chose to let the three-dimensional characters show themselves, and described her experience in the form of a letter to her heir Marco, so that the twists and turns in this are real and prominent.

The book is divided into six parts. The first part of the ethereal, warm little heart is like a lead, Hadrian from his own illness, because of his serious illness, regret. Looking back at the hunt, the diet, the sleep, and the love of the past, coincidentally, at the end of the first part, he says: This letter, which began to tell you about the illness, gradually became a pastime for a man who no longer had the energy to deal with the affairs of state for a long time, and became a meditation of a patient who reminisced about the past. Now that I'm asking myself more, I plan to tell you about my life.

Smooth and natural, naturally begins the memories of the later parts.

The main part has a variety of variations, the state of stability, the golden age, the discipline of Augustus, patience. Basically, the order traces back to his ups and downs and extraordinary life. Some readers commented that this memoir is a seriously ill Hadrian's reconciliation with his own life, which is very pertinent. At the twilight, the once fierceness slowly turned to ashes, and the light and shadow of the experience also became the guidance for its successors and future generations.

Margaret's creation is remarkable, and every word is the condensation of hard work. Imagine, restore, realize, empathize. There is a passage in her "Creative Notes" that is quite touching.

On that cold night of December 26, 1950, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, in the polar silence of the barren mountain islands of the United States, I tried to experience the sweltering heat and suffocation of a day in July 138 A.D., to experience the heaviness of the blanket over his heavy and tired legs, to the almost imperceptible sound of the sea without rising and falling tides, from here to the man who was concentrating on his own dying commotion. I tried to find the last sip of water, the last discomfort, the last image. The emperor now had to wait for his death.

It's total devotion and re-creation, the devotion of imagination and empathy. This should be the foundation of her excellent works.

Margaret's achievements were remarkable, and in 1980 she was officially accepted as the first outstanding woman in the Académie française. After her death in 1987, the poems remembering her have been circulating: should not cry, because she is no longer there; should smile, because she has been, she has done her best in her life!