Got the audiobook for review.

The narration was good and while the book was interesting and was easy to get invested in. It didn't stand out much and didn't give me more then 3 stars. Don't have much to say about the book.

I have to confess I knew nothing about Christopher Marlowe so really can’t comment on the facts or fiction except to say it’s a very illuminating and super interesting read. Such a tragic short life to die over sthg so trivial.

Who would have thought that this would turn out to be such a lively and engaging read that would lead me to halt my listening half way and watch Shakespeare In Love movie, whose playwright approached Greenblatt for a collab abt Shakespeare but Greenblatt wanted the focus to be Marlowe. And of course Marlowe is one of many characters featured but the movie was all about Shakespeare and more.

There’s already so many detailed glowing reviews about the author and this book, adding mine to it would be superfluous. Hence I have confined my remarks to its effect on me. Also adding this book to your collection will prove what a worthy read it is.

I’ve not read a single work by Marlowe and am going to remedy that with Faustus but only after Greenblatt’s Will in the World and Swerve first.

I would not have heard about those 2 other books either if Netgalley and the publisher had not approved my audio request. Bravo! Well done for promoting good writing and broadening my reading perspectives. I’m going to add this ebook and read it again as I missed a few key passages in the audio.

A timely, informative exploration into the missing pieces of the Elizabethan literary era.

In brutally repressive sixteenth-century England, artists had been frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners were suspect; popular entertainment largely consisted of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world came an ambitious cobbler’s son with an uncanny ear for Latin poetry―a torment for most schoolboys, yet for a few, a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire, and dangerous skepticism. What Christopher Marlowe found on the other side of that door, and what he did with it, brought about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language, and culture, enabling the success of his collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare.

With propulsive narrative flair and brilliant literary criticism, Stephen Greenblatt reconstructs the youthful involvement with the queen’s spy service that shaped Marlowe’s brief, troubling life and gave us his Tamburlaine and Faustus―dramatic masterpieces on power and its costs. And with detailed historical insight, Greenblatt explores how the people Marlowe knew, and the transformations they wrought, birthed the economic, scientific, and cultural power of the modern world―involving Faustian bargains with which we reckon still.

Edoardo Ballerini captures this text with such radiance. I could listen to him read the phone book.
This book enlightened my perspective on Christopher Marlowe and the influences that shaped him. I had no idea his life was so dramatic and thrilling!

Thank you NetGalley, Stephen Greenblatt, and RBMedia for this audio ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I’m not normally a nonfiction fan. When I do read them, I like for them to be somewhat historical in nature. I’ve got to be honest in that I was expecting something different from this book.

I knew absolutely nothing about Christopher Marlowe beforehand, so I was interested in hearing what Greenblatt had to say. This guy died at age 29, which is a bit jarring to me as he was younger than I currently am (31). Marlowe was a risky free thinker and ultimately he paid the price for it. Much like today, it’s unpopular to go against the grain and challenge societal norms.

The narrator was engaging, and I found myself listening intently to the words. While I wouldn’t recommend this to my book club, it would be a very niche recommendation for those interested in literature.