FREDERICK ROLFE
ISBN: 9788195514731

For many years manuscript of this novel was kept under lock and key, all who read it being fearful of any association with its publication. This ‘Romance of Modern Venice’, the last work of that mysterious man of letters and learning, Fr. Rolfe, self-styled Baron Corvo, was first published in 1934. Written in the days of poverty and despair that ended only with his death in Venice, it may be said that he gave his life for this book. In pages of violent beauty, slashed across with fierce bitterness, the broken but undaunted Rolfe pours out his threnody, exhibiting a startling and sometimes disconcerting piece of self-portraiture, and an intensely real picture of Venetian life. It is a book which everyone who has read Symon’s Quest for Corvo will wish to put beside it on the shelf, and which will send everyone who has not hurrying to discover more about its author.