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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by badhaircut on November 26, 2003, at 20:55:19
To anyone interested in the Catholic Church, or Edwardian-era politics, or etymology, or revenge fantasies, I recommend "Hadrian the Seventh" by Frederick Rolfe.
Written 100 years ago by an impoverished but brilliant Englishman with a difficult personality, it's a novel about an impoverished but brilliant Englishman with a difficult personality who, as luck would have it, becomes pope.
Wow. He sells off the Vatican art treasures, uses only cold rainwater in his shower, rolls his own cigarettes, and is perplexed by his inability to love human beings. Wealthy bishops, socialists, the Jesuits and even ugly people all get scissored by the conniving but deeply sincere pope.
Yes, it's like the comedy "The Pope Must Diet" in some ways, except that author Rolfe pulls no punches. I think Auden said it was "written by demon -- not a mere poseur." Rolfe's writing style, like his ideas, is Out There: baroque, with a few dozen words not contained in dictionaries. "Hadrian" is a multilayered reading extravaganza.
(A safe gift for both hard-liners and liberals.)
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