Books by Frederick Rolfe

Hadrian the Seventh is novel of extreme wish-fulfillment developed out of an article he wrote on the Papal Conclave to elect the successor to Pope Leo XIII. The prologue introduces us to George Arthur Rose - a failed candidate for the priesthood denied his vocation by the machinations and bungling of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical machinery, and now living alone with his yellow cat. Rose is visited by two prominent churchmen, one a Cardinal Archbishop. The two propose to right the wrongs done to him, ordain him a priest, and take him to Rome where the Conclave to elect the new Pope has reached deadlock. When he arrives in Rome he finds that the Cardinals have been inspired, divinely or otherwise, to offer him the Papacy. He accepts, and since the only previous English Pope was Adrian (or Hadrian) IV, he takes the name Hadrian VII.

"O that fine octagonal face of his-the great dark thoughtful eyes-the straight broad nose pointed at its low tip-the wide firm mouth with its full lower lip, curbed by the very thin bow of the upper-the very square strong jaw-the expression insolent because modest, imperious because shy,-but a face which could smile. And O the robust and generous young form, noble and opulent in contour-the ardent force restrained of him. To me, from the beginning, he was something apart, an individual whom one must either abhor, or adore-nothing else-and, as I saw him close for the first time, staring at him quite unreservedly, I knew what my feelings were."Here, presented for the first time in paperback format, is Amico di Sandro, the unfinished novel by Frederick Rolfe, a.k.a. Baron Corvo, dealing with the rambunctious life of Sandro Botticelli.An eccentric tale of art and Renaissance times for the connoisseur.