Fires

by Marguerite Yourcenar, Dori Katz (Translator)

Overview

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 of Fires is a classic tale."—Stephen Koch, New York Times Book Review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226965284
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	11/05/1994
Series:	Phoenix Fiction Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	130
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Marguerite Yourcenar’s (1903-1987) many works include A Coin in Nine Hands, Fires, Two Lives and a Dream, and A Blue Tale, all published by the University of Chicago Press.


Dori Katz is professor emeritus of modern languages and literature at Trinity College, Hartford, CT. She is a translator of several books from the French and a poet. Her most recent collection of poems is Hiding in Other People’s Houses. 

Table of Contents

Preface
Phaedra, or Despair
Achilles, or the Lie
Patroclus, or Destiny
Antigone, or the Choice
Lena, or the Secret
Mary Magdalene, or Salvation
Phaedo, or the Dance
Clytemnestra, or Crime
Sappho, or Suicide

Editorial Reviews

"Intersperced with the cris de coeur of ....poems or call them poetic tales - brilliant, short, contorted retellings of Phaedra Achilles - I will be called forth by the leer of life passion....A novel among the fantasies and aphorisms of 'Fires' is a classical tale." -- New York Times Book Review

Stephen Koch