The Pope's Rhinoceros
Published on 1. September 2018
592 pages
978-0-8021-9942-3 (ISBN)
Description
"The acclaimed author of
Lemprière's Dictionary furnishes another richly textured romp steeped in history, legend, and excitement." -
Booklist
The Pope's Rhinoceros is a vivid, antic, and picaresque novel spun around one of history's most bizarre chapters: the sixteenth-century attempt to procure a rhinoceros as a bribe for Pope Leo X. In February 1516, a Portuguese ship sank off the coast of Italy. The Nostra Senora de Ajuda had sailed fourteen thousand miles from the Indian kingdom of Gujarat. Her mission: to bribe the "pleasure-loving Pope" into favoring expansionist Portugal over her rival Spain with the most exotic and least likely of gifts - a living rhinoceros. Moving from the herring colonies of the Baltic Sea to the West African rain forest, with a cast of characters including an order of reclusive monks and Rome's corrupt cardinals, courtesans, ambassadors, and nobles, The Pope's Rhinoceros is at once a fantastic adventure tale and a portrait of an age rushing headlong to its crisis.
"An exhausting banquet of a book... One of the most original, energetic, and ambitious novels of recent years." - Kirkus Reviews
"Mr. Norfolk's heady originality and intellectual energy are apparent on every page." - The New York Times Book Review
The Pope's Rhinoceros is a vivid, antic, and picaresque novel spun around one of history's most bizarre chapters: the sixteenth-century attempt to procure a rhinoceros as a bribe for Pope Leo X. In February 1516, a Portuguese ship sank off the coast of Italy. The Nostra Senora de Ajuda had sailed fourteen thousand miles from the Indian kingdom of Gujarat. Her mission: to bribe the "pleasure-loving Pope" into favoring expansionist Portugal over her rival Spain with the most exotic and least likely of gifts - a living rhinoceros. Moving from the herring colonies of the Baltic Sea to the West African rain forest, with a cast of characters including an order of reclusive monks and Rome's corrupt cardinals, courtesans, ambassadors, and nobles, The Pope's Rhinoceros is at once a fantastic adventure tale and a portrait of an age rushing headlong to its crisis.
"An exhausting banquet of a book... One of the most original, energetic, and ambitious novels of recent years." - Kirkus Reviews
"Mr. Norfolk's heady originality and intellectual energy are apparent on every page." - The New York Times Book Review
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Lawrence Norfolk
The Pope's Rhinoceros
Book
04/2003
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
€15.50
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Lawrence Norfolk was born in 1963. His first novel, Lempriere's Dictionary, was critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic and has been translated into twenty-two languages. He lives in London.
Content
- Intro
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- I Vineta
- II Ro-ma
- III The Voyage of the Nostra Senora de Ajuda from the Port of Goa to the Bight of Benin in the Winter and Spring of 1515 and 1516Part Three
- IV And the Ship Sails On. .
- V Nri
- VI Naumachia
- VII Gesta Monachorum Usedomi
