"The Abyss" [the title of the American edition of "L'Oeuvre au noir"] is an elaborate metaphor for the emptiness of history, the vanity of power, and the grandeur and misery of men exemplary of whom is [Zeno]….

Zeno, like the kabbalistic image of the primordial man, is body, sentience, and intelligence; however Marguerite Yourcenar has not made him an Everyman, for hers is no simple-minded allegory.

Zeno is principally a physician. Although he is a master of languages and dialects, stuffed with astronomy, mechanics, engineering, mathematics, scholastic theology and canon law, philosophy and dialectics, it is as an herbalist, doctor and surgeon that we know him…. Zeno is everywhere, but not for a long enough time to persuade us that he has roots in time or place. Zeno emerges whole, or almost whole only when he narrowly escapes the inquisitorial arm of the Holy Office (who seek him...