CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE : His Life and Work

by A.L. Rowse

When S/hakespeare came to London, Marlowe at 23 was a master of the stage. Six years later he was dead. His reckless, passionate, arrogant and marvelously gifted life ended tragically in a tavern brawl. The author recreates with sympathy and detail this turbulent man, his boyhood in Canterbury, his Cambridge years, the triumph of Tamburlaine and the innovations of his poetry, his dark involvements and rivalry with Shakespeare, tangles with the law and more. With 220 pages, indexed.

Genres: Biography, History

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Alfred Leslie Rowse, CH FBA, known professionally as A. L. Rowse and to his friends and family as Leslie, was a prolific Cornish historian. He is perhaps best known for his poetry about Cornwall and his work on Elizabethan England. He was also a Shakespearean scholar and biographer. He developed a widespread reputation for irascibility and intellectual arrogance.

One of Rowse's great enthusiasms was collecting books, and he owned many first editions, many of them bearing his acerbic annotations. For example, his copy of the January 1924 edition of The Adelphi magazine edited by John Middleton Murry bears a pencilled note after Murry's poem In Memory of Katherine Mansfield: 'Sentimental gush on the part of JMM. And a bad poem. A.L.R.'

Upon his death in 1997 he bequeathed his book collection to the University of Exeter, and his personal archive of manuscripts, diaries, and correspondence. In 1998 the University Librarian selected about sixty books from Rowse’s own working library and a complete set of his published books. The Royal Institution of Cornwall selected some of the remaining books, and the rest were sold to dealers.

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

good study but pales beside Levin's "The Overreacher."