Two Lives and a Dream

Marguerite Yourcenar. Farrar Straus Giroux, $20 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-374-52091-5

These three tales of the Renaissance by the first woman elected to the Academie Francaise capture ""the misery and sweetness of existence.'' According to PW, ``the volume takes its place alongside Yourcenar's other penetrating re-creations of life in historic periods.'' (April)

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