Frederick Rolfe (1860–1913)
Author of Hadrian the Seventh
About the Author
Image credit: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=426420
Works by Frederick Rolfe
Without prejudice : one hundred letters from Frederick William Rolfe, Baron Corvo, to John Lane (1963) 9 copies
The Rubaiyat of Umar Khaiyam Translated From the French of J. B. Nicolas By Frederic Baron Corvo, Together with a… (1903) 7 copies
Letters to R.M. Dawkins 2 copies
The reverse side of the coin : some further correspondence between Frederick William Rolfe and Grant Richards (1974) 2 copies
How I Was Buried Alive 2 copies
Letters to Grant Richards 1 copy
Letters to Leonard Moore 1 copy
Associated Works
Pages Passed from Hand to Hand: The Hidden Tradition of Homosexual Literature in English from 1748 to 1914 (1998) — Contributor — 170 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Rolfe, Frederick William
- Other names
- Baron Corvo
Rolfe, Fr. - Birthdate
- 1860-07-22
- Date of death
- 1913-10-23
- Burial location
- Isola di San Michele, Venice, Italy
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Cheapside, London, England, UK
- Place of death
- Venice, Italy
- Cause of death
- stroke
- Places of residence
- Holywell, Flintshire, Wales (1895-1899)
- Education
- Scots College, Rome
- Occupations
- schoolmaster
journalist
tutor
photographer
painter
novelist - Relationships
- Benson, Robert Hugh (friend)
Hardy, Ernest George (friend)
Members
Reviews
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Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 46
- Also by
- 5
- Members
- 1,593
- Popularity
- #16,195
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 24
- ISBNs
- 106
- Languages
- 5
- Favorited
- 14
'George Arthur Rose,' having originally been rejected for the priesthood and living in poverty as a free-lance writer, finds himself the object of a highly improbable change of mind on the part of the church hierarchy, who then elect him to the papacy. Rose takes the name Hadrian VII and embarks upon a programme of ecclesiastical and geopolitical reform. Dogged by petty jealousies and scurrilous accusations Hadrian's papacy is relatively short lived.
Rolfe was himself an avowed homosexual and Hadrian like his creator soon surrounds himself with young men and abhors the presence of women and children. Hadrian thus becomes an exercise in wish-fulfilment.
It seems highly unlikely that even back in the early 20th century that the Pope would have had the influence amongst politicians that Rolfe seems to imagine that Hadrian has but in todays world this seems ridiculous. This is a rather quirky novel that has almost been totally forgotten. This wasn't a particularly easy read, the prose is grandiose, there are elements of this book that I rather enjoyed, in particular his dealings with the Socialists who were laughable, but there were also some elements that I found rather tedious. It perhaps deserves to be more widely read but in truth I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to any of my friends.… (more)