Information
Recalling her father's life, Marguerite Yourcenar recreates the Mont des Cats from her own memories, the better to imagine his life.
Quotations
Michel espace quelque peu ses visites au Mont-des-Cats. Mais il continue à aimer cette ascension un peu rude, ce plan de terre battue encadrée de cultures et de bois, au bord duquel un estaminet met une note humaine, et d’où l’on domine de haut le plat horizon. Les trappistes tous pareils, à en juger par leur robe et par leur cagoule, travaillent aux champs, trayent les vaches, guident à pas lents leurs gros chevaux bien étrillés.
Quoi? L’éternité, éditions Gallimard, 1988, p15.
Place | Extract |
| Bailleul | Marguerite Yourcenar does not really evoke any personal memories of Bailleul: to describe her grandparents' house in Bailleul she refers back to the description of a house in Douai by Balzac in La Recherche de l'Absolu... |
| Bailleul | The reader then has to grasp the outline of an unknown, hypothetical Flanders, formed from the author’s imagination... |
| Flandre | Marguerite Yourcenar does more than write about memories associated with places: she tries to recreate the landscapes and the customs of Flanders at the time of her ancestors... |
| Godewaersvelde (Monts des Cats) | Describing here her father’s life, here Marguerite Yourcenar paints a picture of Monts des Cats as she sees it through her creative imagination... |
| Lille | For the Crayencour (anagramme of ‘Yourcenar’) family Lille was where they spent the winter... |
| Mont Noir | To grasp the sentimental value the place had for the author one need look no further than the following statement made by Yourcenar in Les Yeux Ouverts: «(... |
| Monts des Cats |
Recalling her father's life, Marguerite Yourcenar recreates the Mont des Cats from her own memories, the better to imagine his life... |
| Saint Jans Cappel (Mont Noir) | ... |
