Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy

By Park Honan

Book Overview

One of the great playwrights of his age, second only to Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe was also a secret agent as well as the central figure in a murder mystery. Now, Park Honan offers the most thoroughly researched and detailed biography of Marlowe to appear in over fifty years.
Honan, the acclaimed biographer of Shakespeare, takes us from Marlowe's childhood in Canterbury to his mysterious death in Deptford, shedding much light on this shadowy individual. The book features new information on Marlowe's six-and-a-half years at Cambridge, his shocking blasphemy and his street fights, his methods of preparing himself for writing, and his alleged atheism. The book includes new facts about Marlowe's adventures on the continent, where he was caught with a counterfeit coin, a hanging offense, but talked his way out of the noose and was returned to England in irons. In addition, there is a more exact account of the circumstances that led to his murder, and a fresh description of his evolving relationship with Shakespeare.
Researched in archives in England, Europe, and the United States, this superb biography paints an unforgettable portrait of one of the most remarkable figures in English literature.

"No stone is left unturned.... Mr. Honan offers an almost hour-by-hour account of Marlowe's final day, an intriguing theory about the killer's motives and an inquiry into the fatal wound worthy of 'CSI.'"
--William Grimes, New York Times

"A sumptuously detailed picture of Marlowe's world.... The rich, complex vision of Elizabethan life that 'Christopher Marlowe' supplies can make his poetic gift for cutting to the passionate core of that life seem even more astonishing."
--Michael Feingold, The New York Times Book Review

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199232695
• ISBN13: 9780199232697
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Length: 438 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Involved, heavily researched and meticulously presented true-life story.

Park Honan (Emeritus Professor at the School of English, University of Leeds) presents Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy, an in-depth biography of the famous literary figure. Chapters cover Marlowe's childhood, his street fighting, his alleged atheism, a thorough examination of the circumstances that led to Marlowe's murder, and much more. A handful of black-and-white illustrations intersperse this involved, heavily researched and meticulously presented true-life story. Also highly recommended are Honan's previous biographies, most notably the acclaimed "Shakespeare, A Life".

Poetic License on Kit

A book best for people with some prior understanding of Marlowe's works and the era in which he lived. In regard to the spying done, most casual readers will be lost in the confusing cross currents of British politics, heavily influenced by religious factors, of the late 1500s. And the fact is much of Marlowe's life is lost to documented history. In a pleasing style, Professor Park Honan fills the lacunae with his informed guesses and conjectures.

The Antithesis of Shakespeare

Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were both born in 1564 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Shakespeare lived until his 52nd year and authored over 30 plays, the acknowledged master of London theatre. But during Mr. Marlowe's lifetime, he was considered the equal of Shakespeare with the production of his plays (four of which are revived to this day, especially "Dr. Faustus"). The equality didn't last long as he was killed in a tavern brawl at the age of 29. Mr. Marlowe was a social and religious rebel. He populated his plays with the outsiders of his day (non-Christians, homosexuals, et al) and created the anti-hero, predating John Milton's Satan in "Paradise Lost" by seven decades. And here is the rub : there is scant documentation of his life, so Mr. Honan is forced to create facts out of his interpretation of Mr. Marlowe's plays and suppositions out of the English culture of that day. There is nothing wrong with this as writers of the Elizabethan period are constantly forced into doing so (see Stephen Greenblatt's "Will in the World"-2004) but the number of "qualifiers" for the speculations on each page is staggering. This leads to superb research on the actual facts known about the Elizabethan era and a lot of guesses about Marlowe's life. All-in-all, "Christopher Marlowe : Poet and Spy" gives the reader the sense of the man, if not definitive knowledge of his days. An accurate but fictional take of the playwright is Lisa Goldstein's fantasy epic, "Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon" (1993) where Mr. Marlowe's spy career is a major plot device.