Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy

One of the great playwrights of his age, second only to Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe 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 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. In addition, there is a more exact account of the circumstances that led to his murder, and a fresh description of his evolving relationship with Shakespeare. 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. "No stone is left unturned. . . . Mr. Honan offers an almost hour-by-hour account of Marlowe's final day, an intriguing theory about the killer's motives and an inquiry into the fatal wound worthy of 'CSI' "William Grimes, New York Times" A sumptuously detailed picture of Marlowe's world. . . . The rich, complex vision of Elizabethan life that 'Christopher Marlowe' supplies can make his poetic gift for cutting to the passionate core of that life seem even more astonishing"-Michael Feingold, The New York Times Book Review