Pope Joan [Paperback]

LAWRENCE DURRELL (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: SPHERE BOOK (1971)
• ASIN: B000RW8WUQ
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Comic Masterpiece Brilliantly Translated and Adapted, January 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Pope Joan (Mass Market Paperback)

"Pope Joan" or "Papissa Joanna" was originally written and published in 1886 by the Greek author Emmanuel Royidis. The book tells the story of Pope John VIII, the purported female Pope who ruled Christendom for a period of two years, five months and four days in the middle of the ninth century. "Pope Joan" is a comic masterpiece of irreverence towards the medieval Church and the accepted pieties of its revisionist historians. Indeed, insofar as Royidis continued to propagate the legend of Pope Joan, to claim that the work contained only "facts and events proved beyond discussion", the text itself ingeniously combines history and legend, as well as brilliant wit, to subvert claims of authority. As Lawrence Durrell notes in his Preface to his brilliant English translation and adaptation, "the authorities of the Orthodox Church were horrified by what seemed to them to be the impious irony of its author-and no less by the gallery of maggot-ridden church fathers which he described so lovingly." Not suprisingly, Royidis was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church and his book was banned in Greece.

The first three parts of "Pope Joan" tell the story of Joanna prior to her arrival in Rome, before she became an historical personage. Set in the ninth century, the narrative captures the European world in disarray after the death of Charlemagne, captures a time when civilization was tenuous and the Church provided one of the few viable social structures. It is this part of the narrative that is unambiguously fictional, the imagined story of Joanna's life in Germany and then in Greece. After her parents die, Joanna clandestinely enters a monastery where she meets the monk Frumentius and develops a romantic relationship with him. When her true sexual identity is surmised, Joanna and Frumentius flee one monastery and then another, eventually ending up in Greece. Joanna soon becomes tired of her romance and her intellectual brilliance attracts the attention of Church leaders throughout Greece. She leaves Frumentius and departs alone for Rome, where the legend, some say the history, of Pope Joan begins. She becomes a papal secretary renowned for her intellect and, when Pope Leo IV dies, she ascends to the papacy. Pope Joan becomes pregnant and dies after giving birth during a procession through the streets of Rome.

While the general outline of the narrative may seem only mildly interesting, the brilliant translation and prose of Lawrence Durrell, together with the biting, irreverent wit of Royidis, make "Pope Joan" an unsurpassed work of comic genius. A flavor for this wit and style can be found in a short passage describing what ensued after Pope Joan gave birth: "Great was the consternation when a premature infant was produced from among the voluminous folds of the papal vestments . . . Some hierarchs who were profoundly devoted to the Holy See sought to save the situation and change horror and disgust to amazement by crying out `A miracle! A miracle!' They bellowed loudly calling the faithful to kneel and worship. But in vain. Such a miracle was unheard of; and indeed would have been a singular contribution to the annals of Christian thaumaturgy which, while it borrowed many a prodigy from the pagans, had not yet reached the point where it could represent any male saint as pregnant and bringing forth a child."

While the apologist position has consistently denied the historicity of Pope Joan, there is at least some suggestion that the legend is indeed a fact. As Durrell suggests in his Preface, one telling point is that Platina includes a biography of Pope John VIII in his "Lives of the Popes". And no less an authority than The Catholic Encyclopedia states that Platina's "Lives of the Popes" is "a work of no small merit, for it is the first systematic handbook of papal history." Historical disputation aside, however, "Pope Joan" stands as a brilliant work of comic writing and masterful translation, a masterpiece of Royidis and Durrell.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun, satirical read, May 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Pope Joan (Mass Market Paperback)

I purchased this book at the same time that I purchased Donna Woolfolk Cross's book. For a long time I didn't read it, thinking it would be too dry and difficult, being a translation....nothing could be further than the truth. It is genuinely hysterical. Some Catholics probably would be offended at some of the characterizations of the priests and of life in the Middle Ages in general, but it is a book that shouldn't be taken too seriously, just enjoyed. As to whether or not Pope Joan existed or not - who knows? But I hope she did!

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Literate debauchery is the work of a genius..., July 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Pope Joan (Mass Market Paperback)

I enjoyed Cross's version of this story, especially the historical detours into the state of law and medicine in the Dark Ages. But, I'm glad I read it before I opened the Lawrence Durell/Emmanuel Royidis' version.

This is the funniest book I've read since Fried Green Tomatoes! It's a hilarious, irreverent, bawdy, sacreligious saga at the expense of every prudish, hypocritically pious notion ever spawned in Christian history. It's a scream! I wonder if my neighbors have been disturbed by my uncontrollable howling. As an example, there's the bit where Joan uses the leg bone (sacred relic) of a martyred saint which she and a group of monks are transporting, to fend off the overly-amorous monks during an episode of gluttenous over-indulgence!

This very literate debauchery is the work of a genius.