"The first naked woman" is a wonderful novel that sustains a strange reading experience throughout its 1,200 pages. It is not common! And this is a book difficult to classify. What other word could we relate this whirlwind adventure, sensuality, reflection, history (because it is very present and antiquity is really recreated)? Of "Memoirs of Hadrian"? The tone is too juvenile, but wisdom and weight of yet there are specific knowledge. Yourcenar wanted to "redo the inside what archaeologists of the nineteenth century [had] made out of", "the first naked woman" makes us relive the age of Praxiteles immersing ourselves in the experiences of the characters that seek "to live the inside "of others. Dizzying. Like the early chapters where beautiful Phryne saw the first look by Praxiteles on it, by putting himself in his place to him ... Thus we find the girl. The lives of each pass, the sculptor, and the Athens courtesan, rich emotions and complications, those of politics and religion, love and memories, wars and territories covered , rich with the lives of other characters too ... And we experience the passage of time with these beings as 2000 pages make us familiar. Disturbing experience that first woman Lue! The last 300 pages make us relive the memories within the first few pages. Without any weariness with this very rare printing to live in a book "to have himself lived!" Why not approach this text from the madness of the company in its Caubère a Roman Actor, even if it may seem incongruous? To the extent of the fresco and really fast paced adventures (almost every page has its rebounding!), To the playful fantasy and very free tone at times, for the theatrical side of those lives that live inside ! Despite the differences, there is the playfulness, sensuality expressed freely and humorously, the size of the passage of time, at least three points that allow the reconciliation and perhaps enlighten the taste left by this reading. The taste of a story of the kind of "Memoirs of Hadrian" told by a Caubère? "Bluffant" is one word in any case just by closing the volume. Quite something else unexpected. Amazing ... It remains unresolved with this funny print to have lived, to have played different roles met ... Or is it that I particularly liked the story ...
