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Title: Hadrian the Seventh (New York Review Books) by Frederick Rolfe, Alexander Theroux ISBN: 0-940322-62-5 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: 12 March, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.12 (8 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Odd
Comment: Frederick Rolfe styled himself Fr. Rolfe to write this book, to make it look as if he was a Priest. Rolfe himself failed to enter the RC priesthood, rather like Mr Rose/Hadrian (the hero)... and from there on, you can see from his life that Hadrian VII is really Rolfe's wish fulfilment... not only to become a priest, but a Pope! Like Hadrian/Rose, Rolfe was an oddball in real life.
Mr Rose is a reclusive, catty & bookish Englishman, who excels in verbosity and likes showing off his skills in Ancient Greek. Through a chain of coincidences, this autistic "hermit" ends up becoming a priest, and then Pope. He renames himself Hadrian as the last English Pope before him, Nicholas Breakspear, had. Once in power Hadrian takes two conflicting courses, first reforming the Vatican to become less worldly and selling off some of its treasures for charity, harmonising RC factions etc and secondly getting right into world politics... this novel was written before WWI so some of his solutions are a little quaint. He gets France and Russia "sorted out", and hands over most of the world to his native England (see end). Hadrian has a strong anti-socialist bent, but this book came about 8 years before the Bolshevik Revolution occurred.
The other characters are less appealing... least convincing is Jerry Sant, who is supposedly some kind of Scottish socialist, but who speaks neither like a Scot nor much like a socialist (devious or otherwise). Cardinal Ragna, who might be presumed to supply some decent opposition, is also a cardboard cutout.
Rolfe has an odd style of writing... for example he refuses to talk of people being "Scottish" or "Irish", but prefers talking of them as Pictish, Erse or Gaelic, or Keltic (with the K). Despite being a pompous quoter of Classical Greek (and more oddly not mentioning much Latin to go with it), he shows a great prejudice towards living languages of his country's neighbours. -
"England is the dominant race: her language is the language of all her colonies. Why a triplet of little conquered countries [Scotland, Ireland and Wales] should refuse to learn English - should be permitted to insist on their barbarous and unliterary languages, we could never understand. They are conquered countries annexed to their conqueror"
Rolfe evidently needed educating in this area. Gaelic monks taught the Anglo-Saxons how to read and write, and the Irish Free State began a mere six years after the book was written, but I digress. Here is a specimen of the book's style, which goes on and on, page after page -
"The Supreme Arbitrator provided the human race with scope and opportunity for energy. The provisions of the Epistle to princes were drawn up in the Form of Treaty dividing the world, til Midnight (G.T.) of December 31st (N.S.) of the year 2000 of the Fructiferous Incarnation of the Son of God into the Ninefold Kingdom, the American Republic, the Japanese Empire and the Roman Empire."
(This is his cabbalistic way of saying Hadrian handed over Africa and most of Asia to England "the Ninefold Kingdom", naturally, and had given Siberia to Japan. The Roman Empire he speaks of is Continental Europe controlled by the Kaiser.)
Rating: 5
Summary: Astonishingly modern themes
Comment: 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 his elections and 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 traveller 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.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great read by someone slightly off the planet
Comment: To the other reviews here, I'd like to mention Corvo's disconnection from the real world. He seems to believe that kings and popes still really ran the world like they did in 1300. His Hadrian VII persuades Europe to be carved into an Empire of the North, ruled by the King of Prussia, an Empire of the South, by the King of Italy. The American Republic, is given all of South America; the Japanese Empire, gets Siberia; and the rest of the world goes to the King of England. Uh, yeah.
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Title: The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography (New York Review Books Classics) by A. J. A. Symons, A. S. Byatt ISBN: 0940322617 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: 12 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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