Hadrian the Seventh.

£750 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

'Rolfe's most successful work, Hadrian the Seventh, was published in 1904. A combination of thinly veiled autobiography and wish-fulfilment fantasy, it charts the rise to pope of a forlorn seminary drop-out. It is a bizarre if masterful document of exotic descriptions, erudite vocabulary, and obscure scholarship, which situates Rolfe firmly in traditions of fin de siècle decadence. Translated into French and Italian, and ultimately adapted for the stage, it earned Rolfe the posthumous praise of D. H. Lawrence, W. H. Auden, and Graham Greene' (ODNB). First edition, first impression, first issue with cover decoration in white and 32pp of publisher's ads at rear; 8vo; title page printed in red and black, occasional annotations in pencil, scattered light foxing, St Bride's Abbey address embossed to front free endpaper; publisher's purple cloth, gilt lettering to spine, design and lettering to upper cover in white, light rubbing to extremities, some spotting to edges, else very good. Woolf A6a.

• Binding: Hardcover

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