{"product_id":"dark-renaissance-the-dangerous-times-fatal-genius-of-shakespeares-greatest-rival-christopher-marlowe","title":"Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times \u0026 Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival, Christopher Marlowe","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePoor boy. Dark star. Spy. Transgressor. Genius.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eFrom one of the greatest writers on the Elizabethan era, \u003ci\u003eDark Renaissance\u003c\/i\u003e is the thrilling and subversive life story of Christopher Marlowe - Shakespeare's inspiration and rival, who helped to bring England out of the cultural darkness and into the light.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e 'A rigorous and sparkling exploration of what makes an artist .... Essential and addictive reading' MAGGIE O'FARRELL\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In brutally repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world comes an ambitious cobbler's son from Canterbury with an uncanny ear for Latin poetry - which to him is a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire, and dangerous scepticism.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e What Christopher Marlowe finds on the other side of that door, and what he does with it, brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language, and culture, enabling the success of many others, including his contemporary and collaborator William Shakespeare. By the time of his murder in a Deptford tavern in 1593, the 29-year-old Marlowe will be the most celebrated dramatist of his time.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Stephen Greenblatt grippingly reconstructs the involvement with the queen's spy service that shaped Marlowe's brief, troubling life and helped fashion his masterpieces about power and its costs. And 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 - involving Faustian bargains with which we reckon still.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDark Renaissance\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eis a scintillating combination of narrative flair, historical insight and literary criticism about a writer whose blazing talent catapulted England from cultural backwater to crucible of creativity.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Unity Books","offers":[{"title":"Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times \u0026 Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival, Christopher Marlowe","offer_id":44870678446277,"sku":null,"price":40.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0625\/6679\/3413\/files\/978-1-84792-714-9.jpg?v=1751512475","url":"https:\/\/unitybooks.myshopify.com\/products\/dark-renaissance-the-dangerous-times-fatal-genius-of-shakespeares-greatest-rival-christopher-marlowe","provider":"Unity Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}