Product Description

David Riggs evokes the atmosphere and texture of Marlowe's life, from the stench and poverty of a childhood spent near Canterbury's abattoirs to the fanatical pursuit of classical learning at school. Marlowe won a place at Cambridge University, where he entered its world of 18-hour working days, religious intrigue and twilight homosexuality, tolerated but unspoken. The gifted student was not immune to the passions and fears of the wider society, and Riggs describes the mood of England in those years when Elizabeth's crown was anything but secure, and Spain and the Papacy were determined to overthrow her regime. Looming above everything is the Elizabethan state and its spy rings, with which Marlowe was already involved by the time he left Cambridge. His undercover missions brought him into contact with Catholic conspirators who were plotting to kill the Queen; yet as a playwright and thinker he was attracted to the most unorthodox and threatening idea of all - atheism. Marlowe's brief life was enigmatic, contradictory and glorious - and this magisterial work of reconstruction and scholarship illuminates it with immense richness.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66685 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Review
"'The best account of Marlowe's life there is' Guardian"

About the Author
David Riggs is Mark Pigott OBE Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. His previous books include Ben Jonson: A Life. He lives in California with his wife, a native of Sussex.

Customer Reviews

An imaginative life
I found this to be an imaginative book describing the world in which Christopher Marlowe existed, was reared, was educated, wrote and fared. As with any subject where the documentary evidence is limited, many gaps have to be filled in by speculation. The author dealt with many of the enquiries in a deft way. The narrative pursued in the book is never dull. My only reservation is that Marlowe is a will-o-the-wisp and I never felt that I grasped the subject's life. That of course is not the author's fault. Overall, an intriguing account of an interesting playwright and poet.

Fascinating reconstruction of Marlowe's life and times
Given that there is little or no history of the enigmatic Marlowe, this author has done an exceptional archaeological treatise on the subject. Using information from the era (16th Century) he interpolates the likely activities surrounding Marlowe's career - from his early life in Canterbury, through his years at Cambridge University, to his (short) career as dramatist, spy and hedonist (to put it politely).

Fascinating insights into the Elizabethan age, and highly probable extrapolations to what Marlowe was most likely to have done, with an introduction to the characters that populated his world.

He then backs up these theories by looking at the only actual record of Marlowe's life - his plays and poetry, and shows how these works were defined by the culture and learning that Marlowe must have gone through at school and Cambridge.

Very very good - and highly recommended to anyone who would like a glimpse of the how's and why's of the life of England's first great dramatist (yes, I have heard of Shakespeare...)

comprehensive
This was an enlightening reading experience. It gives an comprehensive picture of Elizabethan England, its social structures, its education and the impact of class of one's ability to progress in society. Christopher Marlowe was a unique character who was embroiled in all the issues current at the time religious upheveal, political intrigue, the development of English theatre and anarchy!

A comprehensive view on the life and times of Christopher Marlowe.