W. W. Norton & Company
Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival
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In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobbler's son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be known--and an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. A torment for most schoolboys, yet for a few, like Christopher Marlowe, a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire, and dangerous skepticism.
What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education, and what he does with it, brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language, and culture. His astonishing literary success will, in turn, nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare.
Dark Renaissance illuminates both Marlowe's times and the origins and significance of his work--from his erotic translations of Ovid to his portrayal of unfettered ambition in a triumphant Tamburlaine to Doctor Faustus, his unforgettable masterpiece about making a pact with the devil in exchange for knowledge. Introducing us to Marlowe's transgressive genius in the form of a thrilling page-turner, Stephen Greenblatt brings a penetrating understanding of the literary work to reveal the inner world of the author, bringing to life a homosexual atheist who was tormented by his own compromises, who refused to toe the party line, and who was murdered just when he had found love. Meanwhile, he explores how the people Marlowe knew, and the transformations they wrought, gave birth to the economic, scientific, and cultural power of the modern world including Faustian bargains with which we reckon still.
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Book Details
ISBN:
9780393882278
EAN:
9780393882278
Binding:
Hardcover
Pages:
352
Authors:
Stephen Greenblatt
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
Published Date: 2025-09-09
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Apparently Stephen Greenblatt was once asked for thoughts on a prospective screenplay focused on Shakespeare. Greenblatt's advice: Marlowe, not Shakespeare, would be a fascinating subject for a movie. (The screenwriter, Marc Norman, ignored that advice and went on to co-author "Shakespeare in Love.")DARK RENAISSANCE delivers. Marlowe was a brilliant and tempestuous character, rising from commoner to become a Cambridge grad, a poet and playwright, a spy. His literary career may have blazed as brightly as Shakespeare's but for the public house "reckoning" that ended his young life.Greenblatt is one of my favorite literary historians. THE SWERVE remains among my all-time favorites (I've read it three times). WILL IN THE WORLD is also quite good. I enjoyed DARK RENAISSANCE greatly...with two reservations...- Marlowe has been the subject of at least two biographies and at least two novels. To my eye, Greenblatt doesn't uncover any significant new details or offer any new insights into Marlowe's character and life story.- As a "new historicist," Greenblatt ascribes biographical facts based on the social and cultural currents of the time. As a result, some of his biographical conclusions are speculative. As in WILL IN THE WORLD, Greenblatt frequently uses "very well might have," "it seems likely that," "almost certainly did" and similar language to beef up "details" of Marlowe's life. While I think Greenblatt's assessment of Marlowe's character is generally accurate, I'm unconvinced by some of Greenblatt's conclusions.Nonetheless - a very readable and engaging read.
Thank you!
Ein tolles Buch, unbedingt lesenswert: sowohl als Zeitpanorama einer sehr repressiven Gesellschaft als auch als Biographie und Darstellung des erstaunlichen Bildungsgangs und Aufstiegs des Christopher Marlowe, eines Jungen aus der Unterschicht Canterburys. Immer wieder erstaunlich, was in den englischen Archiven aufbewahrt wird und zugänglich ist - beispielsweise zu den Vermächtnissen eines kleinen Schusters und seiner Frau, den Eltern Marlowes. Gar nicht zu reden von den literarischen Aspekten zu den beiden "Rivalen" des elisabethanischen Theaters.
This is a treatise of the subjectMuch like a Professor would give in a classThe author talks about the times and political mores of that eraDry and lifelessNot a novel
A fast-moving account of a fascinating rogue. And a deep dive into a cruel society full of murderous plots, savage state-sponsored censorship and draconian religious suppression. Would make the basis for a great whodunnit…lovers of Mantel’s Wolf Hall and le Carré’s realistic world of espionage could form a sizeable audience. But more important, the account of an autocratic polity fracturing under the stresses of emerging modernity and the scientific revolution has relevance for American society today. Marlowe would have loved it.
