cancer, her future seems to be stripped of all hope. Her lipstick and artificial smile cover her despair.

Old Giulio Lovisi

Old Giulio Lovisi (jee-EW-lee-oh loh-VEE-see), the owner of a cosmetics store and a villa in Ostia. He is married to Giuseppa, and their daughter, Giovanna, is married to the writer Carlo Stevo, a socialist whom Giulio would like to “own.” Carlo disappears while in jail for crimes against the state. Giulio often lights votive candles and says his prayers in an incoherent and automatic way. He remains enslaved to money worries and family problems, and he realizes the irreversible decline of his feelings for his wife, whose corpulence, sour disposition, and many shortcomings can only worsen. When a wish is granted to Giulio, his agony of hoping is perpetuated.

Carlo Stevo

Carlo Stevo (STEH-voh), the husband of Giovanna. He is a writer and inspires Marcella’s assassination attempt. Carlo dies in jail.

Giovanna Lovisi-Stevo

Giovanna Lovisi-Stevo, Carlo’s wife and Giulio’s daughter. She takes care of their crippled child in the hope of seeing her husband again. The angelic and golden world of the church is the antithesis of Giovanna’s life. Giovanna is embittered, solitary, and prone to temptations while waiting in vain for the return of her husband.

Miss Jones

Miss Jones, Giulio’s salesgirl. When fired from her job because of Giuseppa’s jealousy, she says her prayers in the hope of returning to England and regrets her madness in having come to Italy, where none of her dreams has come true. Small miseries make up the lives of Giulio and Miss Jones. Their prayers sustain their hopes, which are the only things that give meaning to their lives.

Old Mother Dida of Ponte Porzio

Old Mother Dida of Ponte Porzio, the wife of Fruttuoso. She has faced a ruthless fate in her husband, a good-for-nothing man who had given her many children and poverty, and she is now filling her life with routine and habit. Selling flowers near the film theater and the Conti Palace, she has outlived her husband, a king, and three popes. Indifferent to politics and religion, she loves Father Cicca and his organist without any religious faith. Despite her stinginess, she offers the ten-lira coin received from Dr. Sarte to the exhausted Clément Roux.

Clément Roux

Clément Roux (klay-MAHN rew), a French artist about seventy years old. He has no interest in the modern architectural and political world of Rome. He meets with Massimo Iacofleff, but their ensuing conversation is completely at cross purposes, as neither listens to the other.

Massimo Iacofleff

Massimo Iacofleff (mahs-SEE-moh ee-AH-koh-flehf), a double agent. He is introduced as a lover of Lina Chiari. He tells Clément about his complicity with Marcella, when they traded in false passports in Vienna, and how he is now worried that Marcella might have despised him when she died alone during her failed assassination attempt. He is one of the two main witnesses to the assassination attempt. He expresses admiration for Marcella’s heroism and Carlo’s commitment.

There is no one central character in A Coin in Nine Hands; instead, several characters have a tenuous relationship with one another and share a com-mon need for illusion or obliteration. No one strives for meaningful action or consciousness; they simply act out predetermined roles or wear appropriate masks. Yourcenar’s other novels are very different, especially Memoires d’Hadrien (1951; Memoirs of Hadrian, 1954). One critic makes the differences clear: “In that early work, Yourcenar made modern characters of mythical ones. Here [A Coin in Nine Hands], she has reversed the process. Marcella, the assassin, is seen not as a modern woman, but as a doomed spirit of revenge.” Yourcenar has also described her characterization as mythic; she suggests that “Massimo is of course Thanatos, the angel of death [and] Marinuzzi is Dionysus.”

Two other characters deserve mention. Dr. Sarte is, in contrast to most of the others, objective and aloof. He is not the victim of illusion but sees the world as it is. He is, moreover, an opportunist who is using Fascism rather than being used by it. Nevertheless, he wants and needs to reestablish his relationship with Marcella, since without it, his life is empty. Another disinterested character is Massimo. He is the product of the modern world, not of Marcella’s mythic one. He has been initiated by “hunger, war, escape, being arrested at the border.” His only value is survival in a meaningless world.

Representing a fictional cross section of society in fascist Italy at the time of the novel, characterization in A Coin in Nine Hands is developed as an ensemble which is in sharp contrast to the single, dominating protagonist generally projected in Yourcenar's historical fiction. In essence, the various characters, male and female, constitute a collective statement concerning the social and political atmosphere created by the author. Each character who handles the coin uses it as retribution to purchase an illusion, attempting either to alleviate guilt or dispel the silence of despondency. From prostitute to shopkeeper to candle vendor, the coin moves in cyclical rotation as the action of the novel unfolds to reveal the universal pathos of existence.

Referred to by Yourcenar as "tragicomic," the characters in A Coin in Nine Hands are drawn with minimal detail and biographical information. Interestingly, the most developed as well as intricate characters of this novel are women, unlike Memoirs of Hadrian (1951) and The Abyss (1968) where male figures emerge with intensity. As an author, Yourcenar is clearly manipulating characterization to achieve her creative purpose. This is further illustrated by Yourcenar's ability to intertwine the lives of her secondary characters into the structural development of the novel as a means both to engage the interest of the reader and to enhance her thematic concerns. Most successful in realizing this capacity is the character of the dissident writer Carlo Stevo. Similar to her utilization of the coin as an object of connection, Yourcenar allows Stevo to indirectly impact on events as well as influence character motivation without his physical appearance in the novel. Consequently, the news of Stevo's death at the hands of his political captors serves to reinforce the element of futility that surfaces to signify the essence of the novel.