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Title details for The Pope's Rhinoceros by Lawrence Norfolk - Available

The Pope's Rhinoceros

by Lawrence Norfolk
ebook
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“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
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Publisher: Grove Atlantic

Kindle Book

  • Release date: December 1, 2007

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9780802199423
  • Release date: December 1, 2007

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9780802199423
  • File size: 3472 KB
  • Release date: December 1, 2007
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Formats

Kindle Book
OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

Fiction Literature Thriller Historical Fiction

Languages

English

“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
Expand title description text
Fiction Literature Thriller Historical Fiction