The Marlowe Papers
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the 2013 Desmond Elliott Prize
Longlisted for the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction
You're the author of the greatest plays of all time.
But nobody knows.
And if it gets out, you're dead.
On May 30, 1593, a celebrated young playwright was killed in a tavern brawl in London. That, at least, was the official version. Now Christopher Marlowe reveals the truth: that his "death" was an elaborate ruse to avoid a conviction of heresy; that he was spirited across the English Channel to live on in lonely exile; that he continued to write plays and poetry, hiding behind the name of a colorless man from Stratford—one William Shakespeare.
With the grip of a thriller and the emotional force of a sonnet, this remarkable novel in verse gives voice to a man who was brilliant, passionate, and mercurial. A cobbler's son who counted nobles among his friends, a spy in the Queen's service, a fickle lover and a declared religious skeptic, Christopher Marlowe always courted trouble. In this memoir, love letter, confession, and settling of accounts, Ros Barber brings Christopher Marlowe and his era to vivid life in The Marlowe Papers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Award-winning poet Barber's debut historical novel perpetuates the oft-told myth that Shakespeare's plays were really written by the dramatist Christopher Marlowe. Barber's fictionalized biography of Marlowe (1564 1593) cleverly reveals his adventurous life as a popular playwright and poet, love affairs with men and women, sordid spy missions for Queen Elizabeth, and a faked death to escape being hanged for heresy. Despite the book's being too long and written in tedious Elizabethan verse, Barber's skillful plotting makes the work's premise almost believable. Marlowe's friends concoct a wild scheme to fake his death in a fight in 1593, and Marlowe flees to Europe, forever exiled as a dead man. However, he has influential friends and continues to write plays as Shakespeare and spy on England's enemies, most notably Catholic conspirators plotting against the Protestants. Throughout this lengthy tale of plot and counterplot, Marlowe meets fascinating characters, sneaky spies and counterfeiters, gifted poets and playwrights, self-serving noblemen and vicious gutter-snipes. Barber's vivid portrayal of filthy, stinking London, the horror of the plague, the rampant and bloody religious intolerance, and the squalid daily life of 16th-century Europe are accurate and convincing.
Customer Reviews
Epic and long awaited
Absolutely outstanding!