How Many Years

Yourcenar (1903-1987), perhaps most famous for her novel Memoirs of Hadrian and the first woman to be elected to the Academie Fran aise, in 1980, wrote an autobiographical trilogy, of which this is the second volume. Graceful, witty and ironic, it deftly sketches the history of the Crayencours, her father's side of the family. After opening unpromisingly with ruminations about the prehistory of her native Belgium, Yourcenar turns to the lives of her Belgian and French ancestors. Though Rubens is one of the more distinguished among them, the interest of the memoir lies in its speculations about the influence of major historical events on largely obscure people. Yourcenar's accounts of her grandfather Michel-Charles de Crayencour and her father, Michel, make up the bulk of the book. Her grandfather, a Flemish patrician, trained as a lawyer, lived quietly--all the more so after the spectacular railroad accident that nearly took his life. His son lived more dangerously, fleeing to America with another man's wife and shooting off one of his fingers as proof of devotion to her. The relationship did not last. His marriage to Yourcenar's mother marked the domestication of a colorful figure. Illustrations not seen by PW. (July)