Recordatorios – primera entrega de la trilogía de carácter autobiográfico titulada El laberinto del mundo, que continuaría con Archivos del Norte y ¿Qué? La Eternidad – es a la vez un libro de memorias y una novela histórica. Comienza con el nacimiento de la propia autora y tiene como protagonistas a sus más próximos parientes. Michel, el padre; Fernande, la madre; Remo, el lejano primo de vida y muerte románticas; e incluso otros personajes más secundarios, se levantan de su precaria existencia en recuerdos desvaídos, lápidas semiborradas y amarillentos papeles judiciales, y adquieren vida y esencia ante nuestros ojos. A la manera renacentista, Marguerite Yourcenar utiliza una vez más el pasado para hablar más profunda y universalmente del presente. La obsesión por explicarse a sí misma y explicar nuestra época trasciende de las páginas de estos Recordatorios que ayudarán al lector a conocer mejor las claves de la vida y la obra de esta gran dama de la literatura.

a lot I didn't know who she was taking about. ( )

"A feat of historical and literary imagination"
By sally tarbox on 30 September 2016
Format: Paperback
In this difficult-to-categorize work, French author Marguerite Yourcenar describes her family history.
Opening with her own birth in Brussels in 1903 - of which her mother died shortly afterwards - Yourcenar takes us back in time, giving us glimpses of her ancestors. From medieval gentry - where she uses her knowledge of contemporary history to help imagine their lives - she moves on to look predominantly at her mother's side of the family.

"Life gone by is a withered, cracked leaf, without sap or chlorophyll, riddled with holes, frayed and torn, which, when held up to the light, reveals at most the skeletal tracery of its slender, brittle veins. Certain efforts are required to give it once more the fleshy green appearance of a new leaf, to restore to events and incidents that fullness..."

Quite a lot of the book focuses on her mother's 'Uncle Octave' - the Belgian writer Octave Pirmez, something of a tortured soul, scarred by the suicide of his sensitive elder brother. Only the final chapter is dedicated solely to her late mother, her young life and marriage, and here through letters and conversations with her father she tries to recreate the personality of the woman she never met.
The cover of my edition (Virago) shows the author's old family photos, where the figures seem almost ghostly, and the reader feels these old names are brought to life by this work of scholarship, research and imagination:

"Let us try to conjure up that house as it must have been between 1856 and 1873, not merely to carry out the experiment (always valuable) that consists in reoccupying, so to speak, a corner of the past, but above all to attempt to distinguish in that gentleman in his frock coat and that lady in her hoopskirts, who are now scarcely more in our eyes than specimens of the humanity of their day, that which is different from us or that which, despite appearances, resembles us - the complicated play of causes whose effects we continue to feel."

An erudite work in which Yourcenar vividly brings to life her ancestors. ( )

J’ai aimé relire «Souvenirs pieux», dont le récit généalogique, loin d’être une suite de données de l’histoire de sa famille, cherche à pénétrer dans l’âme de ses ancêtres. De leur passé lointain, grâce à Yourcenar, ils nous parlent encore.

… lettre d’Octave à Félicien Rops, du 20 mars 1874. Félicien s’était mis en tête de publier dans un petit journal parisien certaines de ses propres lettres à Octave, décorées de croquis, et ornées de vignettes de Cupidons. Ces messages, à en croire Octave, étaient «d’un ton léger et fantaisiste», et il n’était que trop à craindre qu’on soupçonnait le destinataire d’avoir répondu dans la même clef.

«… J’ai passé avec toi des heures charmantes, pendant lesquelles nous nous livrions à notre expansion naturelle et à mille fantaisies d’imagination… Mais cette vie intime devait-elle se répandre sur une feuille publique et entrer aux cafés et aux tavernes ?… Je t’en prie, remplace mon nom par un pseudonyme.» (P. 235-236) ( )

In Souvenirs Pieux treedt Yourcenar in het spoor van haar voorouders, langs moederskant. Dit is dus een soort stamboek-roman, en daarmee, wat mij betreft niet zo boeiend. Het is wel een typische Yourcenar, in die zin dat ze evoceert hoe haar voorouders hun tijd hebben beleefd. Daarbij komen Belgische plaatsen als Brussel, Luik en Marchienne in beeld, en valt ook de sterke ecologische toets op. Het vervolg, Archives du Nord, waarin haar vader de hoofdrol speelt, vond ik interessanter. ( )