The Pope's Rhinoceros: A Novel - Hardcover

Norfolk, Lawrence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 051759532X ISBN 13: 9780517595329

Publisher: Harmony, 1996

Synopsis

The highly acclaimed author of Lempriere's Dictionary, which was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of 1992, returns with a vivid, antic, and picaresque fictional tapestry--reminiscent of The Name of ther Rose--which spins around one of history's most bizarre chapters: the 16th-century attempt to procure a rhinoceros for the amusement of Pope Leo X.

About this title

Review:

In the tradition of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Umberto Eco, Lawrence Norfolk has created a dizzyingly dense and impressively erudite fantasy of a novel, a vast edifice based around a single, actual historical event: the sinking off the coast of Italy of a Portugese ship bound on a bizarre mission, to deliver an African rhino to Pope Leo X. Norfolk takes his readers on a world tour of the 16th century, from the flophouses of Rome to the rain forest of West Africa, and along the way he piles historical esoterica upon philosophical rumination upon myriad subplots and minor characters. The chains of event and coincidence and the encyclopedic references will exhaust some readers long before the mad quest for the rhino meets its watery end, but Norfolk's baroque talent remains inexhaustible.

About the Author:

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harmony
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 051759532X
• ISBN 13: 9780517595329
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 574