Dark Renaissance - Stephen Greenblatt

Poor boy. Dark star. Spy. Transgressor. Genius. This is the thrilling and subversive life story of Christopher Marlowe Shakespeare s inspiration and rival, who helped to bring England out of the cultural darkness and into the light. Sparkling, addictive reading' MAGGIE O'FARRELL'A dazzling account of a dazzling life' STEPHEN FRY'As evocative as any novel' PHILIPPA GREGORY'Riveting' BEN ELTON**AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025**In brutally repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world comes an ambitious cobbler s son from Canterbury with an uncanny ear for Latin poetry which to him is a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire, and dangerous scepticism.What Christopher Marlowe finds on the other side of that door, and what he does with it, brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language, and culture, enabling the success of many others, including his contemporary and collaborator William Shakespeare. By the time of his murder in a Deptford tavern in 1593, the 29-year-old Marlowe will be the most celebrated dramatist of his time.Stephen Greenblatt grippingly reconstructs the involvement with the queen s spy service that shaped Marlowe s brief, troubling life and helped fashion his masterpieces. Along the way we discover how the people Marlowe knew, and the transformations they wrou
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