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Araucaria · 05-14-2018, 03:32 AM

Hi Doubleshuffle

Thanks for giving Rolfe's Hadrian the Seventh a go.

Is it perhaps worthwhile posting your unfinished version on here, so someone else could have a go and finish it?

I first read the book a good thirty years ago, and I have a Chatto & Windus 1959 edition.

What makes the book particularly entertaining is that many of the characters are not-at-all-thinly disguised portraits of Rolfe's acquaintances. One hesitates to use the word "friends", as Rolfe always and unerringly bit the hand that fed him, and many people who tried to help him later fell victim to his vitriol-filled pen.

There are biographies later than the classic AJA Symons "Quest for Corvo" (published 1934), that go into the details of his life that Symons was unable to include. In the thirties many of the libelled characters were still alive, and the details of Rolfe's unconventional lifestyle could only be alluded to rather than described.

I too have bought the Valancourt Books edition.

05-14-2018, 03:32 AM	#827
Araucaria Bibliophile Posts: 166 Karma: 934516 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Cantal in the French Auvergne Device: Kindle Voyage, Kobo Libra H20, Kindle PW2, Moon Pro on Lenovo tablet	Hadrian the Seventh Hi Doubleshuffle Thanks for giving Rolfe's Hadrian the Seventh a go. Is it perhaps worthwhile posting your unfinished version on here, so someone else could have a go and finish it? I first read the book a good thirty years ago, and I have a Chatto & Windus 1959 edition. What makes the book particularly entertaining is that many of the characters are not-at-all-thinly disguised portraits of Rolfe's acquaintances. One hesitates to use the word "friends", as Rolfe always and unerringly bit the hand that fed him, and many people who tried to help him later fell victim to his vitriol-filled pen. There are biographies later than the classic AJA Symons "Quest for Corvo" (published 1934), that go into the details of his life that Symons was unable to include. In the thirties many of the libelled characters were still alive, and the details of Rolfe's unconventional lifestyle could only be alluded to rather than described. I too have bought the Valancourt Books edition.