First published in French in 1974 under the title 'Souvenirs Pieux', DEAR DEPARTED is the first volume of a trilogy by Marguerite Yourcenar, one of the most celebrated French writers of the century, devoted to her own origins and background. Yourcenar describes the events surrounding her birth in 1903, then takes us back through the centuries to meet her mother's forebears: soldiers, essayists, idealists, heroines, even ambassadors. Throughout, the history of the family serves as a window on the history of a rapidly-changing Europe.Using memoirs, letters and momentos, Yourcenar richly evokes both the larger events on the European stage and the rhythms and textures of everyday existence. Though rarely visible, Yourcenar is everywhere present, her perceptions rendered in her unmistakable voice. The book is a tour-de-force of historical and literary imagination. In a note to her translator, Marguerite Yourcenar wrote "It is very important that the reader not get the impression that the author is greatly or personally interested in her origins, since the whole quest is more sociological and historical than personal." It is this attitude that makes Dear Departed such an extraordinary work. Marguerite Yourcenar's mother died of puerperal fever when her daughter was only a few days old. Ostensibly a search into her mother's ancestors, about whom the author has few family stories or memories to rely on, the book is actually a dense, luminous collage of historical anecdotes, visits to chateaus past and present, philosophical musings, angry denunciations of industrial practices, semi-fictional biographies, and marvelous recreations of life among the Belgian landed gentry of long ago. Marguerite Yourcenar's distance from her subjects, particularly those closest to her, can be disconcerting, as when she explains her various mundane uses of the few treasures of her mother's that her father saved: "Nothing shows better the insignificance of our human individuality, which we prize so highly, than the rapidity with which those objects that support it and sometimes symbolize it are, in their turn, outmoded, outworn or lost." Yet she can also delve into intimate aspects of those far removed, as when she muses about the sex life of her grandparents. The book moves in and out of historic events and individual lives, raising questions about love and loyalty, traditions and their consequences. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14 . -- From 500 Great Books by Women ; review by Erica Bauermeister