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 ''Brilliant'' JAMES SHAPIRO ''As evocative as any novel'' PHILIPPA GREGORY 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 wrought, gave birth to the economic, scientific, and cultural power of the modern world - involving Faustian bargains with which we reckon still. Dark Renaissance is a scintillating life of a writer whose blazing talent catapulted England from cultural backwater to crucible of creativity.

Autorentext

Stephen Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University.

He is the author of fifteen books, including The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, which won the National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize, as well as the New York Times bestseller Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare and the classic university text Renaissance Self-Fashioning.

A prize-winning author and celebrated scholar, he has been studying, thinking and writing about Renaissance literature for his entire working life.

Klappentext

Poor boy. Dark star. Spy. Transgressor. Genius.

This is the thrilling life-story of Christopher Marlowe: Shakespeare's greatest rival and inspiration, the writer who transformed art and culture in England forever.

'A dazzling account of a dazzling life' STEPHEN FRY
'Sparkling, addictive reading' MAGGIE O'FARRELL
'As evocative as any novel' PHILIPPA GREGORY
'An unforgettable literary biographical tour de force' INDEPENDENT

In brutally repressive Elizabethan London, artists are frightened; foreigners are suspect; crowds revel in animal fights and public executions. Into this crude world comes an ambitious boy whose uncanny ear for poetry and radical streak would transform England forever.

Enter Christopher Marlowe. A cobbler's son from Canterbury, by the time of his murder in 1593 Marlowe is the most celebrated playwright of his time, setting the stage for an explosion of artistic creativity. Written by one of our greatest writers on the Elizabeth era, Dark Renaissance tells Marlowe's story: a dramatic tale of daring, scandal and tragedy which reveals Marlowe to be a blazing talent who helped break England out of the cultural darkness and into the light.

** AN ECONOMIST, DAILY EXPRESS AND NEW YORKER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 **

'Gripping' THE TIMES
'Outstanding' MAIL ON SUNDAY
'Terrific ... As propulsive as any spy novel' NEW YORK TIMES
'Riveting' BEN ELTON
'Brilliant' JAMES SHAPIRO