Two Lives and a Dream

These three tales of the Renaissance by the first woman elected to the Academie Francaise capture ""the misery and sweetness of existence.'' ``An Obscure Man'' recounts the short life of Nathanael, who runs away to sea from his Amsterdam home, fearing he has killed a man. He serves years before the mast, witnesses the horrors of slavery, lives in the wilds of Canada and loves three women; one, the prostitute/thief Sarai, gives him a son. The tale evokes classic Dutch paintings; the author describes its visual inspiration in her valuable postfaces, which trace the inception and long evolution of these fictions. The graceful, slighter ``A Lovely Morning'' shows Nathanael's son running off with a troupe of actors, joyous at becoming ``so many people living out so many adventures.'' The gothic tale ``Anna, soror . . . '' takes the reader to Spain and Italy, describing the doomed, incestuous passion of a brother and sister. The volume takes its place alongside Yourcenar's other penetrating re-creations of life in historic periods (Hadrian's Memoirs; Oriental Tales. (March)