The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher MarloweIn 1593 the brilliant but controversial young playwright Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death in a Deptford lodging house. The circumstances were shady, the official account—a violent quarrel over the bill, or "recknynge"—has been long regarded as dubious. Here, in a tour de force of scholarship and ingenuity, Charles Nicholl penetrates four centuries of obscurity to reveal not only a complex and unsettling story of entrapment and betrayal, chimerical plot and sordid felonies, but also a fascinating vision of the underside of the Elizabethan world. "Provides the sheer enjoyment of fiction, and might just be true."—Michael Kenney, Boston Globe "Mr. Nicholl's glittering reconstruction of Marlowe's murder is only one of the many fascinating aspects of this book. Indeed, The Reckoning is equally compelling for its masterly evocation of a vanished world, a world of Elizabethan scholars, poets, con men, alchemists and spies, a world of Machiavellian malice, intrigue and dissent."—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times "The rich substance of the book is his detail, the thick texture of betrayal and evasion which was Marlowe's life."—Thomas Flanagan, Washington Post Book World Winner of the Crime Writer's Gold Dagger Award for Nonfiction Thriller |
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agent arrest atheism Babington Babington plot Baines Note Baines's Ballard Blount Bruno Cambridge Catholic Chamber Cholmeley's Christopher Marlowe connection court CSP Scot dangerous Deptford described document Drury Dutch Church libel Earl of Essex Earl of Northumberland early Edward Elizabethan England English evidence Flushing France Gifford Hariot Harvey Heneage Henry Hesketh HMC Cecil imprisoned Ingram Frizer inquest intelligence involved Jesuit June killing later Leicester letter literary London Lord Burghley Lord Strange Low Countries Marlowe's death Marshalsea Mary Michael Moody Moody Morgan Morley Nashe Nashe's Nicholas Skeres Paget Paris perhaps Phelippes play plot poem poet Poley Poley's political portrait priest prison Privy Council probably Queen Ralegh Rheims Richard Baines Richard Cholmeley Robert Poley Roydon says secret seminary Sidney Sir Francis Sir Robert Cecil Stanley story Strange's Tamburlaine Thomas Kyd Thomas Phelippes Thomas Walsingham Thomas Watson William Woodleff words writing wrote young