Lawrence Norfolk
The Pope's Rhinoceros
A Novel
New York 1997
Stron 574, format: 16x24 cm
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"The biggest book—in every sense—to be published in English since the Second World War ... I was thrilled and engaged by its brilliance."
—Tibor Fischer
In 1992 a novel called Lempriere's Dictionaryby a then unknown British novelist named Lawrence Norfolk became an international literary event and sold hundreds of thousands of copies in twenty-two languages around the world. Now Norfolk is back with another rollicking, picaresque novel that is reminding readers of the brilliant historical novels of Robert Graves and Umberto Eco. The Pope's Rhinoceros is based on one of history's most bizarre chapters: the attempt in the sixteenth century to procure a rhinoceros as a bribe for Pope Leo X. Moving from the herring colonies of the Baltic Sea to the West African rain forest, with a cast of characters including a resourceful ex-mercenary, Salvestro; his dim-witted comrade, Bernardo; an order of reclusive monks; and Rome's corrupt cardinals, courtesans, ambassadors, and nobles, the novel holds up the history of the rhinoceros as a mirror to the obsessions and corrupt fantasies of the Renaissance. The Pope s Rhinoceros is both a fabulous adventure tale and a portrait of an age rushing headlong to its crisis.
"One of the most ambitious and inventive historical novels to be written since
the death of Robert Graves ... An astonishing achievement, little short of a mas-
terpiece." — The Independent T^ee^enaf(London)
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.
CONTENTS
Viñeta 1
Ro-ma 113
The Voyage of the Nostra Señora de Ajuda from the Port of Goa to the Bight of Benin in the Winter and Spring of 1515 and 1516 351
And the Ship Sails On 405
Nri 439
Naumachia 509
Gesta Monachorum Usedomi 569
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