Raven Four: Justus Stephen Serjeant
by Robert Scoble
Frederick Rolfe's final five years were spent in Venice. Halfway through that time, when his fortunes seemed to have reached their nadir, a nondescript Anglican clergyman arrived in the city on a holiday and walked into his life. The Reverend Serjeant was a somewhat colourless and unprepossessing man, and Corvine scholars have long been puzzled as to why he should have found Rolfe so impressive as to agree, after a short acquaintance, to bankroll his writing career. Now, at last, the clergyman's life has been thoroughly researched, and his full story can see the light of day. Ensconced, by his own choice, in a lucrative but stultifying country parish, Serjeant travelled alone on the Continent for many weeks of each year, in search of adventure and good cheer. When he met Rolfe, he found they had much in common. Rolfe proved an enthusiastic and entertaining guide to the artistic wonders and carefree inhabitants of the city, and Serjeant's judgment began to cloud in the drowsiness of that Edwardian summer. The story of his hitherto uneventful life, and the circumstances surrounding his patronage of the eccentric writer, are engagingly told in this charming addition to our Series.
The Raven Series has been planned as a set of scholarly essays which will add substantially to our knowledge of the life and work of Frederick Rolfe. Each essay is being published in a strictly limited edition, and there is little doubt that complete sets will be sought after by collectors in the years to come.
Of a full edition of 70 the first twelve copies of Justus Stephen Serjeant are case bound in dark brown paper-covered boards with gilt titles, signed by the author, and include the first publication of the full transcripts of the deeds by which Serjeant obtained and then surrendered control over Rolfe's work. Numbers 13-70 form the ordinary state of the edition and are sewn into dark brown card covers with a paper label and acetate covers and contain less supplementary material.
Ordinary State £9.99 + £1p+p to anywhere in the world.
The Special State of this publication is now out of print.
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