Neo-classicism

"Let me at least dispute the validity of the prevalent opinion that taking an older work and retouching or partly rewriting it is a useless or even injurious enterprise because it destroys the original impulse and passion. On the contrary, for me it was both a privilege and an experience to see this substance, fixed on the page for such a long time, become once again pliable, to relive this adventure I had made up in circumstances I no longer even remembered, and finally to find myself again before these romanesque events as before situations I had already lived through once. Now, however, I could explore them better, interpret them or explain them more fully, even though it was not in my power to change them. The opportunity of expressing ideas and emotions that were still mine, with improved craftsmanship and through the insights gleaned from a longer human experience, seemed to me too precious not to be accepted with joy and humility."---A Coin in Nine Hands, afterword. Marguerite Yourcenar, translated by Dori Katz, 1934.