Download Hadrian the Seventh (Modern Classics) ePub

Yes, well, um, quite...This eccentric, dainty, precieuse story really has not much to do with Roman Catholicism or the Papacy...It has almost everything to do with its eccentric, dainty, precieuse author, who certainly was an odd fish--It is his confession, vindication and divine wish-fulfillment all in one. Or was he really all that odd? His is the story of the eminently talented, gifted, sensitive soul left to drift in the world, his talents unappreciated by the vulgar herd, left with only his pride as consolation. He very much resembles Baudelaire's description of the poet whose "great wings prevent him from walking"--And this book encompasses his vision of what he would do could he but fly. But it must be said that this literary flight is, simply put, more odd and curious than grand or tragic or majestic or poetic. It is, like its author, idiosyncratic to the core.

Reading this book, for me, was like rummaging in a linguistic attic, chancing upon a forgotten turn of English or Ancient Greek and smiling wistfully before putting it aside again. Ultimately, this book is, like its author, a curiosity whose "caviare" as D.H. Lawrence puts it on the back cover, can and will be appreciated only by the few with a taste for the peculiar.

There's no denying that Frederic Rolfe--the self-styled Baron Corvo--created something truly one-of-a-kind in memorable with HADRAIN THE SEVENTH, his fantastic account of an embittered marginalized crank being called upon to serve as the first English pope in centuries. In many ways, the bizarrity of this fantasy, and its undeniable stylistic maturity and complexity, make it something akin to "outsider art," the products of painters, fabricworkers and sculptors whose artworks seem a product of insanity or neurosis. The problem with Rolfe's book, however, is that as fascinating as it is intitally the novelty quickly wears off, and then you're left with chapter upon chapter left of Pope Hadrian flouncing through the Vatican making sweeping edicts and then exploring their ramifications upon Jesuitical belief--hardly the stuff of hours of reading delight.

You'll need several dictionaries to comprehend the magnificent writing style of the author. A fascinating read with much theological food for thought.

This is an interesting, entertaining, well written and improbable novel from 1904. The writer was a failed candidate for priesthood who writes a novel about a fictional failed priest candidate who becomes pope, fixes the church, rewards the deserving, etc. Everything goes well until he is assassinated, oops, spoiler alert. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book but you have to understand the writer and his starting point/ultimate goal. It shouldn't be taken too seriously. I urge the purchase and reading of this book.

one of my all time favorite books and was so very happy to find it on Kindle!

One of my favorite gay novels of all time.

This really is an astonishingly modern book. He shows in part a Church capable of corruption and deceit, but also shows a Church which has what we now call a preferential option toward the poor, and a Pope also works diligently for peace.

Here we have the hero, a poor, scholarly eccentric, who has been ill-treated by Church officials. His bishop did not like him and did not support his vocation to the priesthood, and told lies to boot. However, finally, a couple of bishops, one an Archbishop, look into his case and decide he has been dreadfully wronged. Rolfe delineates a structure of secrecy, deceit, and cover up. He did not anticipate the scandals of the cover-up of child abuse, but the structures of deceit are there, and one can still see them at work today.

Well, the old Archbishop, after much careful and challenging questioning, determines that our hero really does have a true vocation to the priesthoood, and that his studies were sufficient. He ordains him. It just turns out that the Archbishop has come back from a Papal Conclave which is in deadlock, unable to choose a new Pope. He returns to Rome with the new priest in his entourage, and lo and behold, it turns out that his ill-treatment and his case have been discussed. By the Holy Spirit, he is chosen Pope, much to his surprise. However, the Spirit no doubt gave him strength and he accepts the office, choosing the title of Hadrian VII.

Well, what kind of Pope is he? He first of all wants to be a Pope of the people, and so ensures after his election that his first appearance is to the waiting crowds outside in the world. He likes going among the crowds, even though there is some danger of assassination, though he was not the traveler that J. P. II is. He insists on having his quarters built and decorated in a utilitarian way, eschewing grandeur. Having experienced poverty, he is very solicitous towards the poor and devotes a lot of Church resources towards ameliorating poverty. So, he anticipated the preferential option towards the poor.

Some have pointed out that his Pope has a great deal more influence in the world than any modern Pope has had, Hadrian VII showed himself as vitally interested in peace. Truly, the Pope would not be able to engineer a division of the world into spheres of influence for various favored powerful nations.

There is good and bad in the Church, and Rolfe's Hadrian VII sets out much of both.

Rolfe himself was quite an eccentric, and so is his Pope. The style is full of archaisms and wierd bits of learning, but Rolfe was theologically astute, too. His Hadrian is a very complex and facinating character, somewhat depressive, hard working, kind, and strange. This novel is so interesting I can forgive it a few faults. Some of it is a hoot.

Frederick Rolfe's Hadrian is all surface and seeming - it is pontiff-ego, receiving its due recognition as a thing valuable in and of itself. A defrocked misanthropic, mysogynist Roman Catholic priest living in near hermetic solitude with his cat, and entertaining himself by counting the split infinitives in the daily paper, is approached and courted by the church, which eventually elects him Pope. Hadrian VII is a truly bizarre and interesting novel. If you enjoy Wilde, Huysmans, Orton or Alexander Theroux, or screeds of beautifully ornate abuse, you will undertake your own quest for Corvo as, sadly, not a one of Rolfe's works is in print.