Marguerite Yourcenar, one of France's most celebrated authors, here continues the absorbing tale of her background and origins. The first volume of her autobiographical trilogy, Dear Departed, was devoted to her maternal forebears. The current book, originally published in 1977 under the title Archives du Nord and now making its first appearance in English, introduces us to her father's side of the family.

Yourcenar takes us back in time, to relive the tumultuous history of northeastern France through the eyes of a remarkable gallery of ancestors: canonesses and matriarchs, statesmen and scoundrels, merchants and artists (the painter Peter Paul Rubens married into the family).

But the central character in the narrative is the individual who had the greatest formative influence on Yourcenar: her father, Michel de Crayencour, who educated her, encouraged her literary ambitions, and fostered in her the intellectual breadth, originality, and subtlety that are so characteristic of her work.