Oliver VII is a novel by Antal Szerb. Originally published in 1942, the book's first English translation was published in 2007. In the book, the restless ruler of an obscure Central European state plots a coup against himself and escapes to Venice in search of ‘real’ experience. There he falls in with a team of con men and ends up, to his own surprise, impersonating himself. His journey through successive levels of illusion and reality teaches him much about the world, about his own nature and the paradoxes of the human condition.
Translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix, ISBN 978-1-901285-79-6 and ISBN 978-1-901285-90-1 for the reprint edition
Famous quotes containing the words oliver and/or vii:
“My grandmother stood among her kettles and ladles.
Smiling, in faulty grammar,
She praised my fortune and urged my lofty career.
So to please her I studied—but I will remember always
How she poured confusion out, how she cooled and labeled
All the wild sauces of the brimming year.”
—Mary Oliver (b. 1935)
“I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.”
—Pope Gregory VII (c. 1020–1085)