Dark Renaissance

The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Will in the World reveals the daring and subversive life of Christopher Marlowe―Shakespeare’s contemporary, inspiration, and rival.

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.

©2025 Stephen Greenblatt (P)2025 Recorded Books

He's a Rebel

Christopher Marlowe, the 16th century English playwright, poet and spy, led a dangerous life. In “Dark Renaissance,” we learn about the intrigues, cruelty and political killings that affected England’s upper classes under Queen Elizabeth I. In that milieu, Marlowe took wild chances, both with his plays and in his personal life. Stephen Greenblatt does a good job, shifting back and forth between Marlowe’s life and an analysis of his plays and poetry. We get a great feel for Renaissance London and prominent figures like Shakespeare and Raleigh, but I did not find the book as insightful as Greenblatt’s earlier works like “Swerve.”

The narration was excellent for a sometimes dry topic.

A superb immersion

A well researched and excellently written and performed immersion in the age and in the sometimes scandalous creations of Christopher Marlowe. Superb.

Very well done.

What Greenblatt has done here is fantastic. Presenting all evidence and rather than claiming definitives, shows us all the facets of the diamond in detail. Well done as he is wont to do.

Ballerini is as usual, the perfect narrator.

The synthesis of history, intrigue, intellectual history and literature.

Probably as much as we will ever know of what happened in that small room.

Interesting and informative

Learned a lot about an author I was unfamiliar with. Enjoyed the entire production. Now must needs go find some more Marlowe to listen to.