Fires

by Marguerite Yourcenar

Other authorsDori Katz (Translator)

Paperback, 1982

Status

Available

Genres

All Topics

General Fiction

Fiction

Publication

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1982), Paperback, 156 pages

Description

Fires consists of nine monologues and narratives based on classical Greek stories. Antigone, Clytemnestra, Phaedo, Sappho are all mythical figures whose stories are mingled with contemporary themes. Interspersed are highly personal narratives, reflecting on a time of profound inner crisis in the author's life. "The unwritten novel among the fantasies and aphorisms ofFires is a classic tale."-Stephen Koch,New York Times Book Review Consists of 9 monologues and narratives based on classical Greek stories. Interspersed are highly personal notations, reflecting a time of profound innner crisis in the author's life.

User reviews

LibraryThing member jwhenderson

Fires consists of nine "lyrical prose pieces," inspired by Greek myths including Phaedra, Achilles, Sappho and others. The narrator inserts brief comments, aphoristic fragments on love, linking these pieces. In her preface the author comments that the book is "product of a love crisis, Fires is in

the form of a collection of love poems, or, rather, is like a sequence of lyrical prose pieces connected by a notion of love. As such, the book does not require any commentary."(p ix). The fragments enhance the stories they surround providing thematic hints--fleeting glimpses at the memories of dreams of love. The feelings expressed throughout are consonant with the classical pieces used as demonstration of the human frailties exposed throughout. "Patroclus", for example, opens with the howling of Cassandra whose fate is to bring forth the destiny of others in her presentation of the future. We all know Patroclus' end, but his destiny is in the hands of the gods who control his fate just as they compel Cassandra's prophecies. Yet, the prose is more a meditation on Achilles' love for Patroclus which transcends his death and continues to cause Achilles to ponder the meaning of life after death. This leads me to conclude that Yourcenar here presents a work for the reader's meditative moments. Even in translation the poetry escapes through the prose, as with all of Yourcenar's works, and leaves us with messages over which we may linger with contemplation and consideration of the nature of our reading life.

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