The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe

by Charles Nicholl

Book Overview

In 1593 the brilliant but controversial young playwright Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death in a Deptford lodging house. The circumstances were shady, the official account--a violent quarrel over the bill, or "recknynge"--has been long regarded as dubious.

Here, in a tour de force of scholarship and ingenuity, Charles Nicholl penetrates four centuries of obscurity to reveal not only a complex and unsettling story of entrapment and betrayal,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226580245
• ISBN13: 9780226580241
• Release Date: July 1995
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

nice little historical who dun it! utterly brilliant work

I love history and all the details. I also love riddles and mysteries. So, when someone combines both into a tale, as Charles Nicholl did, it's bound to please me. This book is the Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography and the Crime Writers' Gold Dagger Awards for non-fiction thriller - both well earned!!Marlowe was a very controversial poet and playwright. In 1593, he was stabbed to death in a lodging house in Deptford. To say the least, the manner and circumstances of death was up to question. There was a violent quarrel concerning Marlowe's bill and the official finding has been called dubious at best.Nicholl brings to life this historical riddle with style and ingenuity weaving facts, supposition and fiction into one wonderful mix. He presents a very complex study of Marlowe's death, but it is also a marvellous study of the seedier side of Elizabethan society. Nicholl walks the masterful tightrope between historical study on Marlowe's murder, a well-written 'who dun it' and portrays with rich detail the period that leaves one wondering if he is not reincarnated!!So buy it for the history, writers need to read it if they write about the period for it is also a scholarly work, but most of all sit back and enjoy a real British Who do it.

No innocent victim

Fascinating book. Charles Nicholl is excellent at detailing the machinations and dirty tricks of the Protestant police state that was Elizabethan England. Unfortunately he isn't quite as good at explaining why poet and spy Christopher Marlowe was executed by that state.It's not Nicholl's fault of course - the problem is the lack of hard evidence. All we can conclude after wading through 500+ pages of Nicholl's labyrinthine research are some vague hunches - that chief minister Robert Cecil wanted to nail Sir Walter Ralegh, that young Marlowe was a member of Ralegh's circle, and that executioner Poley was Cecil's man. As with the Gunpowder Plot twelve years later, it seems Robert Cecil was probably the chief villain. But who knows?Readers should be prepared to like Marlowe rather less after reading the book. Making his living as a government spy during very violent times, Marlowe was certainly no innocent victim of circumstances.

Superbly written and entertaining

Contrary to what one reviewer (if we can use that word, since he or she obviously didn't read the book) says, the mystery of Marlowe's death has not ceased to be fascinating. There are several reasons for this, as Nicholl makes abundantly clear: first, the debt owed to any human being whose death has not been clarified; second, the light this murder throws on the workings of the Elizabethan espionage system, and Marlowe's relation to it; third, the fact that he wasn't just anyone - he was a gifted writer, and we all lost something by his dying so young. Nicholl's work leaves nothing to be desired: it is at the same time scholarly and awfully entertaining. The man obviously knows his subject. The Marlowe that emerges is not the brilliant if somewhat rebellious youth that we used to think of, but a less likeable, more unsavoury character. But, as Nicholl says somewhere in the book, can we really burden him with the weight of our own expectations? He was a man of his time, and, although we might regret having to put the spy side by side with the playwright, he may not have seen it that way: it was a question of going or not going hungry. I would say that I altogether prefer the fuller picture, even if it's not the most pleasant one."The Reckoning" is abundantly researched and very well written, and is one of the few books I have lately read, which I did not want to finish.

Facsinating, brilliant, and difficult --

These three terms could refer either to this book or its primary subject, Christopher Marlowe. Surely one of the most riveting pieces of historical detection ever undertaken, Nicholl's work weaves together an intricate tapestry of documentation, imputation, and speculation to create what is, in many ways, the most convincing explanation for the murder of Marlowe ever given in print. "New" documents shed much additional light on previously obscured links and connections, and Nicholl himself brings a fresh manner of thinking to the table in order to make clear sense out of even long-discussed pieces of "evidence" such as Dr. Gabriel Harvey's so-called goggle-eyed sonnet. The main portion of the book is concerned with painting the historical background of the murder itself. Nicholl illuminates individuals, giving us portraits of single participants in the overall scheme of the Elizabethan secret service and its related criminal underworld and Catholic conspiracies, not to mention the court rivalry Nicholl believes is the immediate catalyst for Marlowe's death. Again, as with the murder itself, Nicholl is plausible and original in his theories. My one quarrel with the work is that frequently it is based upon speculation -- intelligent, well-grounded speculation, but guesswork none the less. However, the paucity of documentary evidence from the time and the frequent statements by Nicholl in the narrative that he knows he is not proving each theory makes this more palatable. On the whole, a spellbinding and astonishing piece of work.

A diligently researched study brilliantly executed

An investigation into the circumstances of Marlowe's death, this book delves deeply into Marlowe's background and to the realities of the Elizabethan underworld with its spies and cutthroats. A fascinating study not only of Marlowe but of his contemporaries, including fellow writers and Sir Frances Walsingham's secret service. Diligently researched, the book also contains numerous invaluable illustrations. One of the most 'readable' books I have read in a while!