The World of Christopher Marlowe

by David Riggs

Book Overview

The definitive biography: a masterly account of Marlowe's work and life and the world in which he lived Shakespeare's contemporary, Christopher Marlowe revolutionized English drama and poetry, transforming the Elizabethan stage into a place of astonishing creativity. The outline of Marlowe's life, work, and violent death are known, but few of the details that explain why his writing and ideas made him such a provocateur in the Elizabethan era have been available until now. In this absorbing consideration of Marlowe and his times, David Riggs presents Marlowe as the language's first poetic dramatist whose desires proved his undoing. In an age of tremendous cultural change in Europe when Cervantes wrote the first novel and Copernicus demonstrated a world subservient to other nonreligious forces, Catholics and Protestants battled for control of England and Elizabeth's crown was anything but secure. Into this whirlwind of change stepped Marlowe espousing sexual freedom and atheism. His beliefs proved too dangerous to those in power and he was condemned as a spy and later murdered. Riggs's exhaustive research digs deeply into the mystery of how and why Marlowe was killed.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805077553
• ISBN13: 9780805077551
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

Interesting book on the life and times of Marlowe

I enjoyed the history in this book, and not just about Marlowe's own past. Unlike other biographies I have read, this one sometimes gets off of Marlowe and looks at other factors which influence him, either directly or indirectly, and how they might have had an effect on his work as well as his life, right up to the end!

A Remarkable Book

Christopher Marlowe, the Elizabethan poet and playwright, was one of the most talented members of his generation. He helped pioneer the use of blank verse in dramatic poetry and used it to produce five masterpieces while William Shakespeare--who was only two months younger than Marlowe--was still finding his dramatic footing. Who can say how great he might have become if he were not cut down (possibly on orders of the Queen, herself) at the age of 29. As a man, Marlowe was the "unShakespeare". Where Shakespeare was a prudent man who invested his money wisely and was careful not to offend authority, Marlowe was a risk-taker both in his personal life and in his plays. In an age where not toeing the official ine was punishable by death, Marlowe never met a line he was not tempted to cross. If this is what got him killed, it also makes him a fascinating person to read about. David Riggs weaves Marlowe's personal tragedy into an exciting volume that I found as hard to put down as any thriller. It is a book I can heartily recomend.

great for english lit...but skim some

I agree with the reader who says the book is often abstruse. The chapter on double-agenting had my eyes rolling and I was constantly looking back pages to see who's who. Add to this the fact that these Brits (or their elite) can be referred to by a seemingly endless list of tiles each (and, then, their names, as well) and that the minor functionaries and offices of government aren't on everyone's tongue and one often feels mired in the mud. I think this could have been alleviated with chapter introductions or summaries or just a more prudent handling of the proper nouns. Anyway, when I get to that point in any book, I just try to make sure I'm getting the main point and head thru at a trot.... Life is short, and there's so much to read! What I got that was positive from this book, and it was very positive indeed, was a sense of M's contribution to blank verse and the development of Elizabethan drama. I went to my shelves to look at some earlier stuff, and yeppir, there's Marlowe at the dividing line. This certainly gave me a whole new appreciation of him as a figure in English literature and has got me back to sampling some other Elizabethan writing, including his ,comparing and contrasting, which is a nice trip. Very interesting to see how these boy's classical education trained them to snap off large amounts of magnificent English poetry. (The last British governor of Chad remarked in the NYRB that he had zero training when assigned, but the underlying assumption of his superiors was that if you translate Latin poetry to Greek poetry ad lib you could surely run a country! I suppose history has dimmed that conceit, but as a liberal artser, I liked it anyway.) The historical/political background was already well known to me and as far as who might have or could have done this or that, I like my speculation with the facts. (The book is unfortunatly cheaply produced, though not more so than many, and and the illustrations are really muddy. A book can be handsomely done for $30. Check out, for instance, Who Murdered Chaucer - St. Martin's Press - for a sad contrast in book production, also a $30 dollar item.)

Astonishing

I'm not an Elizabethan scholar, I knew next to nothing about Marlowe or the times, and this isn't an area of particular interest to me. Nonetheless, I found this to be an incredible read. It's an absolutely fascinating sketch of an age. The first part of the book includes a rivting examination of Marlowe's education, complete with an in-depth analysis of current intellectual trends and their effects on English cultural and political life. But this book is well titled: its chief object is the world around Marlowe, not Marlowe himself. As noted in another review, we are given very little information about Marlowe the man. While the thorough detail surrounding his life at each step is fascinating, I came away feeling like I knew next to nothing about the man. Perhaps this is simply honest, as we may not know much about him. But it was an odd feeling. I also disagree with the reviewer who feels that this book seeks repeatedly to defame Marlowe. I found the book even-handed and uncritical of Marlowe. Perhaps that's because I don't know the "other" stories that were not included, but I don't feel that this is a brief for the prosecution. I highly recommend this book to anyone who's intellectually curious.

The play's the thing

This is a very absorbing, sometimes astonishing, short bio of the playwright Christopher Marlowe, with a lot of detail of the time and place. The harshness of the times, the austere educational system that Marlowe survived all the way to an MA, his mysterious activities as a spy, all make for an exotic picture of a world that seems, for all its lingering barbarism, more attuned to poetry that our own. This has to be one of the most seminal eras of history, soon to produce the rarest of the rare periods of tragic drama. In that emerging sequence, Marlowe stands out for his bold embrace of the iambic pentameter, the at first poor cousin of the Latin hexameter, yet soon to shine in Shakesperean glory. Marlowe's short but brilliant career ends ambiguously, his murder more than what appears on the surface, perhaps a government assassination. The image of Faust.