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Review
Park Honan, who has an appealingly idiosyncratic style, navigates skillfully through the latest research into the mysteries of Marlowe's story. (Sunday Telegraph )
Andrew Dickson
"There's plenty of sparkle in this book."
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Park Honan is a well-respected literature professor, though it has to be said that his speciality is neither Marlowe nor the Renaissance period. That said, this is a well-researched and well-written book. I can understand why the previous reviewer here was disappointed since Honan doesn't rave about his subject or take a hagiographical approach to Marlowe. Instead this is a judged and balanced biography which admits upfront the lack of evidence for much of Marlowe's life.
Honan intersperses the life with succint commentaries of the plays and poetry: these parts are rather odd, I found, since they are not searching or innovative enough for the Marlovian scholar, and yet oddly-aimed at the general reader.
However the work on Marlowe's spy career, and the Walsingham network is done well; as well as his theatrical career in London.
So overall this is a book which strives - and succeeds - in maintaining an objectivity and detachment about its subject. But if you want something more involved, exciting and partisan I would recommend Nicholls' The Reckoning (The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe).
Honan intersperses the life with succint commentaries of the plays and poetry: these parts are rather odd, I found, since they are not searching or innovative enough for the Marlovian scholar, and yet oddly-aimed at the general reader.
However the work on Marlowe's spy career, and the Walsingham network is done well; as well as his theatrical career in London.
So overall this is a book which strives - and succeeds - in maintaining an objectivity and detachment about its subject. But if you want something more involved, exciting and partisan I would recommend Nicholls' The Reckoning (The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe).
8 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read this book as something of a Marlowe fan, and this publication did not meet with my expectations, but maybe my oppion is at fault or I am not at ease with this writers style.
The story of Christopher Marlowes life should be vivid and exciting, Christopher comes over as a bore and tiresome, the writer looks for faults and errors in his subject and sings little praise of his talents and values.
The book is 'worthy' and a product of a bright mind but lacks the 'sparkle' of its subject.
The story of Christopher Marlowes life should be vivid and exciting, Christopher comes over as a bore and tiresome, the writer looks for faults and errors in his subject and sings little praise of his talents and values.
The book is 'worthy' and a product of a bright mind but lacks the 'sparkle' of its subject.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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8 reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Uneven & frustrating
27 Mar 2006
Format:Hardcover
This book seems to have been written mainly for an audience of professional Marlowe scholars. General readers will find it frustrating and confusing. His writing often wanders all over the place. For example, in reference to Marlowe's activities as spy, Honan writes, "He involved himself in some duplicity, if not in faithlessness and treachery, with regard to fellow scholars at Cambridge" (109), suggesting that Marlowe may have betrayed some of his fellow students with Catholic sympathies. But the point is frustratingly dropped until some 44 pages later, when Honan observes that "we cannot be certain that he betrayed Corpus [i.e. Cambridge University] men, or lured them as a provocateur" (153), seemingly contradicting his earlier point. Because his writing tends to wander, the story of Marlowe's life is hard to follow in Honan's account. Important contexts, such as espionage under Queen Elizabeth, and patronage, are not well-explained. Honan assumes that readers already have a detailed knowledge of these subjects.
An account like this necessarily involves substantial speculation, since the documentary evidence is quite spotty. Readers need to know exactly what the historical evidence is, and where speculation begins. Honan's discussion of the documentary evidence is quite uneven. In some places he gives a detailed account, but in many other places, he simply leaves this essential information out. As a result, the reader is often wondering about the historical basis for Honan's account. He often fails to distinguish fact from speculation.
One useful feature is an appendix which reproduces some important historical documents including the so-called Baines libel and coroner's inquest of Marlowe's death.
An account like this necessarily involves substantial speculation, since the documentary evidence is quite spotty. Readers need to know exactly what the historical evidence is, and where speculation begins. Honan's discussion of the documentary evidence is quite uneven. In some places he gives a detailed account, but in many other places, he simply leaves this essential information out. As a result, the reader is often wondering about the historical basis for Honan's account. He often fails to distinguish fact from speculation.
One useful feature is an appendix which reproduces some important historical documents including the so-called Baines libel and coroner's inquest of Marlowe's death.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Poetic License on Kit
4 Mar 2006
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A book best for people with some prior understanding of Marlowe's works and the era in which he lived. In regard to the spying done, most casual readers will be lost in the confusing cross currents of British politics, heavily influenced by religious factors, of the late 1500s. And the fact is much of Marlowe's life is lost to documented history. In a pleasing style, Professor Park Honan fills the lacunae with his informed guesses and conjectures.
17 of 22 people found the following review helpful
The Antithesis of Shakespeare
28 Jan 2006
Format:Hardcover
Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were both born in 1564 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Shakespeare lived until his 52nd year and authored over 30 plays, the acknowledged master of London theatre. But during Mr. Marlowe's lifetime, he was considered the equal of Shakespeare with the production of his plays (four of which are revived to this day, especially "Dr. Faustus"). The equality didn't last long as he was killed in a tavern brawl at the age of 29.
Mr. Marlowe was a social and religious rebel. He populated his plays with the outsiders of his day (non-Christians, homosexuals, et al) and created the anti-hero, predating John Milton's Satan in "Paradise Lost" by seven decades. And here is the rub : there is scant documentation of his life, so Mr. Honan is forced to create facts out of his interpretation of Mr. Marlowe's plays and suppositions out of the English culture of that day. There is nothing wrong with this as writers of the Elizabethan period are constantly forced into doing so (see Stephen Greenblatt's "Will in the World"-2004) but the number of "qualifiers" for the speculations on each page is staggering. This leads to superb research on the actual facts known about the Elizabethan era and a lot of guesses about Marlowe's life. All-in-all, "Christopher Marlowe : Poet and Spy" gives the reader the sense of the man, if not definitive knowledge of his days. An accurate but fictional take of the playwright is Lisa Goldstein's fantasy epic, "Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon" (1993) where Mr. Marlowe's spy career is a major plot device.
Mr. Marlowe was a social and religious rebel. He populated his plays with the outsiders of his day (non-Christians, homosexuals, et al) and created the anti-hero, predating John Milton's Satan in "Paradise Lost" by seven decades. And here is the rub : there is scant documentation of his life, so Mr. Honan is forced to create facts out of his interpretation of Mr. Marlowe's plays and suppositions out of the English culture of that day. There is nothing wrong with this as writers of the Elizabethan period are constantly forced into doing so (see Stephen Greenblatt's "Will in the World"-2004) but the number of "qualifiers" for the speculations on each page is staggering. This leads to superb research on the actual facts known about the Elizabethan era and a lot of guesses about Marlowe's life. All-in-all, "Christopher Marlowe : Poet and Spy" gives the reader the sense of the man, if not definitive knowledge of his days. An accurate but fictional take of the playwright is Lisa Goldstein's fantasy epic, "Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon" (1993) where Mr. Marlowe's spy career is a major plot device.
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