{"product_id":"the-vatican-cellars","title":"The Vatican Cellars","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat if your noblest duty makes you the perfect victim of a fraud?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn André Gide’s The Vatican Cellars, a rumour spreads through Catholic circles: the pope is imprisoned beneath the Vatican, replaced by an impostor. Rescue demands money and secrecy. Earnest, inexperienced Amédée Fleurissoire sets out to help, trusting a story that gives others power over him.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAround him, certainties shift. Anthime Armand-Dubois exchanges scientific unbelief for Catholic faith after an apparent miracle. Respectable novelist Julius de Baraglioul wants human conduct to make sense. But his young half-brother Lafcadio is fascinated by acting without a practical motive, bringing freedom into uncomfortable contact with moral responsibility.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWhat you'll discover\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA rescue built on rumour\u003c\/strong\u003e – Follow a supposed sacred mission that turns trust, secrecy, and money into tools of deception.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCertainty with shifting foundations\u003c\/strong\u003e – Watch Anthime change his beliefs while holding fast to the comfort of being certain.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFreedom without a reason\u003c\/strong\u003e – Meet Lafcadio, whose fascination with motiveless action presses against ordinary ideas of moral responsibility.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eComedy with a painful edge\u003c\/strong\u003e – Enter encounters where one person sees noble duty and another sees someone to exploit.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOrder under pressure\u003c\/strong\u003e – See Julius’s wish for understandable motives tested by a young man who questions their necessity.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePerfect for readers who enjoy irreverent religious satire, elaborate confidence tricks, and fiction that makes a philosophical question feel dangerously personal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOpen the first page now, and enter a world where good intentions offer no protection against deception.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Library of Alexandria Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59534713291100,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1027\/9442\/8764\/files\/11700_en_ebook-front_c04.jpg?v=1792175123","url":"https:\/\/libraryofalexandria.com\/products\/the-vatican-cellars","provider":"The Library of Alexandria","version":"1.0","type":"link"}