The weird of the wanderer - Softcover

Rolfe, Frederick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1409914151 ISBN 13: 9781409914150

Publisher: Dodo Press, 2008

Synopsis

Frederick William Rolfe (1860-1913), better known as Baron Corvo, and also calling himself Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe, was an English writer, novelist, artist, fantasist and eccentric. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1886 and was confirmed by Cardinal Manning. With his conversion came a strongly felt vocation to priesthood which persisted throughout his life despite being constantly frustrated and never realised. He was an occasional contributor to the Yellow Book published by John Lane; these contributions consisted of a series called Stories Toto Told Me (1898), humourous retellings of Italian peasant legends about the saints, later collected in book form with that title and with a larger sequel, In His Own Image. These made his early reputation, such as it was, and this was enlarged by his Chronicles of the House of Borgia (1901), a serious if idiosyncratic historical study in refulgently Baroque prose. His other works include: Tarcissus the Boy Martyr of Rome (1901), Nicholas Crabbe (1903), Hadrian the Seventh (1904), Don Tarquinio (1905), Don Renato (1907) and The Weird of the Wanderer (1912).

About this title

About the Author

Frederick William Rolfe, better known as Baron Corvo and also calling himself 'Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe' (1860 - 1913), was an English writer, artist, photographer and eccentric. Rolfe spent most of his life as a freelance writer, mainly in England but eventually in Venice. He lived in the era before the welfare state and relied on benefactors for support. But he had an argumentative nature and had a tendency to fall out spectacularly with most of the people who tried to help him and offer him room and board. Eventually, out of money and out of luck, he died in Venice from a stroke on 25 October 1913. He was buried on the Isola di San Michele, Venice. Rolfe's life provided the basis for The Quest for Corvo by A.J.A. Symons, an "experiment in biography" regarded as a minor classic in the field. This same work reveals that Rolfe had an unlikely enthusiast in the person of Maundy Gregory.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dodo Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1409914151
• ISBN 13: 9781409914150
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200