Other Fiction Rolfe, Frederick William: Hadrian the Seventh (1904); v3; 8 Feb 2020

[Pulpmeister]

Frederick William Rolfe (1860-1913)-- the name is pronounced Rofe-- was an artist, author, photographer, and a Catholic convert who was unsuccessful in gaining ordination due to his erratic and diffficult behaviour. There is an excellent book about him by A J A Symons (Crime writer Julian Symons' father) entitled "The Quest for Corvo", which later appeared as a Penguin book. He claimed the Title "Baron Corvo" was granted him by an Italian countess, and this book was published as by Baron Corvo.

In this book, plainly wish fulfilment, Rolfe imagines himself, lightly disguised as William Arthur Rose, being unexpectedly elevated to the Papacy, and all that follows.

In true Rolfe style, he also takes time to fire a few darts at enemies, real and imagined, in his own past.

The cover is from the First Edition.

V2 includes some items not in the text I used, including some Greek alphabet text. In two instances the original text showed letters with diacritics not in the Extended Character Set, so I opted to use the basic letter.
V3 fixes having 2 Ch 8s and no Ch 9 on the chapter headings.

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