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Hadrian the Seventh

Hadrian the Seventh

Hadrian the Seventh is a 1904 novel by the English novelist Frederick Rolfe, who wrote under the pseudonym "Baron Corvo".Rolfe's best-known work, this novel of extreme wish-fulfilment 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.


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“An appeal to a goodness which is not in him is, to a vain and sensitive soul, a stinging insult.”

Source: Hadrian the Seventh (1904), Ch. 19, p. 296

Frederick Rolfe photo

“Pray for the repose of His soul. He was so tired.”

Source: Hadrian the Seventh (1904), Ch. 24, p. 360

Frederick Rolfe photo
Frederick Rolfe photo
Frederick Rolfe photo

“He took the imperial hand and shook it in the glad-to-see-you-but-keep-off English fashion.”

Source: Hadrian the Seventh (1904), Ch. 13, p. 223

Frederick Rolfe photo

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