Hadrian the Seventh

George Arthur Rose is a shabby, embittered writer who was once rejected for the priesthood. When a deadlocked papal conclave unexpectedly turns to him, he is ordained, elected, and crowned as Hadrian the Seventh, the first English pope in centuries. Chain-smoking and fiercely independent, he sets about reforming a Church he both loves and resents, making enemies as fast as he makes decrees. Frederick Rolfe poured his own thwarted ambitions into this strange, glittering wish-fulfillment fantasy, written in ornate, deliberately baroque prose. Part daydream of vindication, part sharp commentary on ecclesiastical politics, it remains the best-known work by one of English literature's great eccentrics. Free to download as a PDF or EPUB.