14 h 12 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the man the Church rejects becomes the Pope it cannot ignore?
George Arthur Rose lives in cramped London lodgings, learned, proud and penniless. Turned away from priestly training, he writes and fumes over a vocation no one will recognise. Then Bishop Courtleigh takes notice. In Rome, divided cardinals struggle to choose a Pope, and doors long closed to Rose begin to open.
In Frederick Rolfe’s Hadrian the Seventh, a rejected man gains the power to challenge the institution he loves. Rose’s wounded pride meets his vision of a Church without pomp and money. Part comedy, part daydream, part sermon, the novel asks what happens when spiritual conviction and the hunger for vindication share the same throne.
What you’ll discover
- An outcast at the centre Follow Rose from shabby lodgings toward an authority that makes others reckon with him.
- Power with a purpose Watch a Pope confront kings, ministers and ambassadors rather than serve as a figurehead.
- A Church stripped bare Explore Rose’s vision of priesthood beyond the weight of wealth and ceremony.
- The ache of recognition Feel the pull of a fantasy where a rejected man finally commands attention.
- A proud, strange voice Enter ornate prose that stays close to Rose’s mind, by turns fussy and funny.
Who will love it
For readers who love eccentric, richly worded fiction, religious satire and the odd byways of English literature. Anyone curious about the Catholic Church will find a story of faith, power and wounded ambition.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A rejected man in a shabby room
- A bishop takes notice of Rose
- Rome is stuck and Rose is summoned
- Rose takes the name Hadrian
- A Pope who meets the world's rulers
- Wounded pride and the fantasy of vindication
- Faith, power and a poorer Church
- A voice that is proud, comic and strange
- The man behind the book and its afterlife
Who’s who
- George Arthur RoseA learned, proud and penniless Englishman, turned away from priestly training, who wants only to be recognised for the vocation he is sure he has.
- Bishop CourtleighA churchman of rank and manner who takes notice of Rose and holds the power to open doors long closed to him.
- Hadrian the SeventhThe name Rose takes as Pope, honouring the only English pope before him, and the figure through whom he tries to remake the Church.
- The cardinalsThe divided princes of the Church in Rome, each with his own faction, who cannot agree on a successor and must look elsewhere.
- Rose's old enemiesThe people from his past who doubted or used him, and who must now face the man they underrated.
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Hadrian the Seventh
by Frederick Rolfe · 1904
In a shabby London room, a rejected would-be priest dreams of recognition as the Church faces a choice of its own.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A rejected man in a shabby room
The novel opens with George Arthur Rose in London, living in cramped and dingy lodgings. He is a man of learning and strong convictions, and he has nothing to show for either. Years before, he went to study for the priesthood, and he was sent away before ordination. The reasons seem to him unjust, and he has never forgiven them.
Rose is poor, and the poverty is not noble. He is pressed by debts, by landlords and by people who see a man with no protector and take advantage of him. He earns scraps by writing and by odd work for others. Rolfe shows the small humiliations in close detail, the unpaid bills, the cold rooms, the callers who want money he does not have.
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What is Hadrian the Seventh about?
It follows George Arthur Rose, an English Catholic rejected for the priesthood, whose fortunes change when he rises to become Pope. The novel mixes satire, faith and wish fulfilment as he tries to reform the Church.
Is Hadrian the Seventh based on a true story?
No, the plot is invented, but it is closely tied to the life of its author. Frederick Rolfe was himself dismissed from a seminary, and Rose is widely read as his self-portrait. It appeared in 1904.
Why does he take the name Hadrian?
The name honours Adrian the Fourth, the only Englishman to have been Pope. By choosing it, Rose links himself to England and signals that he sees his own rise as a kind of English return to Rome.
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