Book Rec of the Day 3/27/2007

BIOGRAPHIES

Christopher Marlowe’s achievements as an artist and the details of his operatic life might be better known had he not been a contemporary of superstar Shakespeare. Riggs pushes Marlowe into the limelight in this compelling portrait. Marlowe rose from poverty to Cambridge to become at once a writer of luscious, sensuous dramas and poetry, and a rabble-rousing spy. His death at 29 (in a tavern brawl, or was it an assassination?) makes his short, prolific career that much more intriguing.

THE WORLD OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, by David Riggs (Henry Holt & Co, 2005)

If you liked Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World, you’ll like The World of Christopher Marlowe.