Criticism

Brown, John L. Review of En pèlerin et en étranger, by Marguerite Yourcenar. World Literature Today 65, No. 1 (Winter 1991): 78-9.

Brief, generally positive review of the collection of previously published essays.

―――――――. Review of Le labyrinthe du monde: Souvenirs pieux, Archives du nord, Quoi? L'éternité, by Marguerite Yourcenar. World Literature Today 66, No. 1 (Winter 1992): 89.

Brief, positive overview of Yourcenar's three-volume autobiography.

Epstein, Joseph. "Read Marguerite Yourcenar!" Commentary 74, No. 2 (August 1982): 60-5.

Appreciative introduction to Yourcenar's life and major works. Epstein begins by harshly critiquing George Steiner's 1981 New Yorker article in which he negatively assessed Yourcenar's importance and questioned the appropriateness of her induction into the Académie Française.

Farrell, Frederick C., Jr., and Farrell, Edith R. Marguerite Yourcenar in Counterpoint. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1983, 118 p.

Contains essays on some of Yourcenar's early works—including Alexis, Denier du rêve, and Feux—as well as essays that consider such issues as the role of women in her works, the relation of her essays to her fiction, and her penchant for revising and rewriting her work.

Gorman, Kay. "Fact and Fiction in Marguerite Yourcenar's Le labyrinthe du monde." Essays in French Literature, No. 23 (November 1986): 60-70.

Examines Yourcenar's literary technique in the first two volumes of her autobiography, Souvenirs pieux and Archives du nord. The essay contains many untranslated quotations from the original French.

―――――――. "Marguerite Yourcenar's Encounter with a Feminist Critic." Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association 73 (May 1990): 59-73.

Disputes the major points made by Georgia H. Shurr in her Marguerite Yourcenar: A Reader's Guide, arguing that "Shurr consistently confuses author, narrator and fictional characters" in her search for autobiographical clues in Yourcenar's works. "Unlike most modern critics," Gorman adds, "Shurr seems to think that there is a 'true' reading of a text, and that autobiographical detail gives some privileged access to it."

Langhorne, Elizabeth. "Bridging East and West." The Virginia Quarterly 63, No. 3 (Summer 1987): 521-28.

Examines and positively reviews Mishima, or the Vision of the Void and Two Lives and Dream.

Rutledge, Harry C. "Marguerite Yourcenar: The Classicism of Feux and Memoires d'Hadrien." Classical and Modern Literature 4, No. 2 (Winter 1984): 87-99.

Argues that both Feux and Memoires d'Hadrien are "significant contributions to the present-day vitality of the classical tradition." The essay contains many untranslated quotations from the original French.

Sarnecki, Judith Holland. Review of Conte bleu, by Marguerite Yourcenar. The French Review 68, No. 4 (March 1995): 756-57.

Laudatory review of Conte bleu praising the volume's cohesiveness and focus on gender stereotypes. Sarnecki states: "Fans of Yourcenar's elegant prose will delight in finding new texts to savor, while newcomers to her work will discover many of the themes developed at greater length in [her] masterpieces."

Shurr, Georgia H. Marguerite Yourcenar: A Reader's Guide. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987, 150 p.

Feminist study of Yourcenar's major works.

Steiner, George. "Ladies' Day," The New Yorker LVII, No. 26 (17 August 1981): 104-06.

Negative review of Fires and generally unfavorable assessment of Yourcenar's career.

Straus, Dorothea. "Petite Plaisance." Partisan Review LVI, No. 3 (Summer 1989): 370-73.

Reminiscence of meeting Yourcenar at her home while she worked on her critical study of Yukio Mishima.

Taylor, John. "Waiting for Hadrian." The Georgia Review XLII, No. 1 (Spring 1988): 147-51.

Appreciation and personal reminiscence of Yourcenar's life and work.

Weightman, John. "Twilight in Flanders." The New York Review of Books XXXIX, Nos. 1-2 (16 January 1992): 30-3.

Detailed review of Dear Departed, which, though he finds it an interesting and entertaining depiction of "the twilight of a social class," he deems ultimately disappointing in its lack of information and insight into its author.

Wineapple, Brenda. "Digging Up the Family Plot." The Women's Review of Books IX, No. 6 (March 1992): 12-13.

Positive review and analysis of Dear Departed.

Interviews

Cismaru, Alfred. "Marguerite Yourcenar: The Final Interview." Michigan Quarterly Review XXXI, No. 1 (Winter 1992): 96-103.

Yourcenar discusses her reputation and her thoughts on literature and aging. The interview was conducted a few months before she died, and at the time she was recovering from open-heart surgery.