British Playwrights - Literary Biography, Great Britain - Espionage, Theater Biography - Playwrights, Spies - Biography

Christopher Marlowe: Poet and Spy

Name: Christopher Marlowe: Poet and Spy
Author: Park Honan
ISBN: 9780198186953

by Park Honan

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Overview

Christopher Marlowe's life was the most spectacular of any English dramatist. One of the great playwrights of his age, second only to Shakespeare, he 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 Corpus Christi College, 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. Honan describes his attraction to scientists such as Thomas Harriot and other hard-headed realists bent on innovation and free thought. In addition, there are new details on spies and business agents that Marlowe knew, a more exact account of the circumstances that led to his murder, and a fresh description of his evolving relationship with Shakespeare.
The author of Tamberlaine the Great and Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe changed the nature of the English stage. 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.

About the Author, Park Honan

Park Honan is Emeritus Professor at the School of English, University of Leeds. He has written biographies of Jane Austen, Matthew Arnold, and Robert Browning. His most recent biography, Shakespeare: A Life, was hailed as "the best available biography" (Boston Globe) and "impressively researched" (New York Times), and The Baltimore Sun wrote "If you have never read a book about William Shakespeare, please read this one."

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Editorials

Library Journal

Elizabethan poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe lived a brief and eventful life as dramatic as his plays. Combing the records and engaging in forensic and archaeological research as well as literary analysis, biographer Honan (English, emeritus, Univ. of Leeds) here tries to achieve a balance between the works and the times. In this he evokes the physical presence of Marlowe's world in his plays, its sights, sounds, and smells, vividly illuminating the texts. While originally a specialist in 19th-century literature, having authored influential biographies of Jane Austen, Matthew Arnold, and Robert Browning, Honan brings insight to his task, filling in details of Marlowe's life as a spy, his dealings on the continent, and his eventual murder, in addition to his relationship with Shakespeare and other playwrights of the day. Appendixes include contemporary accounts of Marlowe as well as the coroner's inquest. The scholarship is solid and the writing lively and accessible. Recommended for both specialists and general readers.-T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah, GA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.