Dark Renaissance
The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival
Will be published approx. on 1. September 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-324-13421-3 (ISBN)
Description
In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobbler's son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be known-and an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. A torment for most schoolboys, yet for a few, like Christopher Marlowe, a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire, and dangerous skepticism.
What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education, and what he does with it, brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language, and culture. His astonishing literary success will, in turn, nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare.
Dark Renaissance illuminates both Marlowe's times and the origins and significance of his work-from his erotic translations of Ovid to his portrayal of unfettered ambition in a triumphant Tamburlaine to Doctor Faustus, his unforgettable masterpiece about making a pact with the devil in exchange for knowledge. Introducing us to Marlowe's transgressive genius in the form of a thrilling page-turner, Stephen Greenblatt brings a penetrating understanding of the literary work to reveal the inner world of the author, bringing to life a homosexual atheist who was tormented by his own compromises, who refused to toe the party line, and who was murdered just when he had found love. Meanwhile, 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 including Faustian bargains with which we reckon still.
What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education, and what he does with it, brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language, and culture. His astonishing literary success will, in turn, nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare.
Dark Renaissance illuminates both Marlowe's times and the origins and significance of his work-from his erotic translations of Ovid to his portrayal of unfettered ambition in a triumphant Tamburlaine to Doctor Faustus, his unforgettable masterpiece about making a pact with the devil in exchange for knowledge. Introducing us to Marlowe's transgressive genius in the form of a thrilling page-turner, Stephen Greenblatt brings a penetrating understanding of the literary work to reveal the inner world of the author, bringing to life a homosexual atheist who was tormented by his own compromises, who refused to toe the party line, and who was murdered just when he had found love. Meanwhile, 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 including Faustian bargains with which we reckon still.
Reviews / Votes
"A terrific read.... Dark Renaissance is a thrilling, twisty tale that brilliantly captures the horror and the possibilities of that lost, crepuscular world." -- Jonathan Healey - New York Times Book Review "In this thrilling and twisty tale, Greenblatt focuses on Christopher Marlowe, the shoemaker's son famed for provocative plays like "Doctor Faustus." With a denouement as propulsive as that of any spy novel, he brilliantly captures 16th-century England." -- New York Times, Editors' Choice "Thrilling biographically-what an extraordinary man, what an extraordinary life." -- Stephen Fry, author of Mythos "This evocative book offers a portrait of Elizabeth England: a time of paranoia, surveillance and violence, but also blistering creativity." -- Economist, "Best Books of the Year" "Dazzling.... [D]oes indeed at times read like something out of La Carre." -- Jonathan Bate - Observer "Since his critical debut...[Stephen] Greenblatt has understood and practiced criticism as a higher form of storytelling. The same narrative flair is beautifully showcased in Dark Renaissance. Modern parallels and critical insights are carefully and accessibly deployed." -- Emma Smith - Times Literary Supplement "Mr. Greenblatt tells this murky but exhilarating tale with pace and gusto.... No one can speculate with greater authority than Mr. Greenblatt." -- Boyd Tonkin - Wall Street Journal "Stephen Greenblatt has the rare ability to write vivid narratives for the general public that rest on firm scholarly foundations. This gift is particularly valuable in his new book, Dark Renaissance.... Greenblatt crafts a brilliant re-creation of the world [Christopher] Marlowe inhabited." -- Wendy Smith - Washington Post "Elegant, engrossing.... [Greenblatt's] analysis is Shakespearean in spirit, crisp and conversational, tipped with puns and wordplay." -- Hamilton Cain - Boston Globe "This gripping biography focuses on Marlowe's brief, brilliant life.... Greenblatt fills [the book] with lively descriptions of the world that shaped this remarkable mind." -- Katherine Harvey - Times "The first major biography of Marlowe in two decades, written by the unquestioned eminence of Shakespearean new historicism.... In its sweep, pace and scholarship, this book vividly contextualises Marlowe's brilliance as a dissident thinker and a wildly innovative writer." -- Will Tosh - Literary Review "Speculative riffs are not a weakness but a mainspring of [Greenblatt's] biographical approach.... Greenblatt's speculations are too well informed to be idle." -- Anthony Lane - The New Yorker "An unforgettable literary biographical tour de force. Almost single-handed, [Greenblatt] has curated a rehabilitation of Marlowe's reputation as the greatest rival, collaborator and exact contemporary of the glover's boy from Stratford." -- Robert McCrum - Independent "Brilliant and riveting.... No critic has done more than Stephen Greenblatt to illuminate Marlowe's world and work." -- James Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare "A thrilling portrait of the English theatre's great transgressor. Stephen Greenblatt gives brilliant life to Marlowe's vaunting intellect, his reckless sexuality, his double-dealing with the security services, and, above all, his theatrical imagination, which exploded out of nowhere to transform the Elizabethan stage." -- Sir Nicholas Hytner, former Artistic Director of London's National Theatre "The era- and genre-transforming radicalism of Christopher Marlowe's work has never been examined more cogently.... In gorgeous, gracefully authoritative prose, Stephen Greenblatt makes the miracle of artistic genius inhabit a recognizably human plane." -- Tony Kushner, Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Angels in America "A staggering achievement in character study, about the man who could have been king of the poets had Shakespeare not supplanted him." -- John Douglas Thompson, Tony Award-nominated actor in Tamburlaine, Parts I and II "A vivid backstage tour of the turbulent world from which Marlowe emerged and what may have been his enduring impact on early modern culture. Essential reading." -- Farah Karim-Cooper, director, Folger Shakespeare Library "Stephen Greenblatt's writing is effortless, his humor superb, his arguments unanswerable. He brings to life Marlowe in the way that he did Shakespeare.... In short, he has done it again: written a totally engrossing, compelling read." -- Eric Idle, Grammy Award-winning lyricist, and cocreator of the Monty Python comedy group "Effortlessly gripping and unputdownable." -- Neel Mukherjee, author of Choice "As evocatively as any novel, Stephen Greenblatt takes the reader into the biting cold and dark of the little Ice Age of Elizabethan England.... A triumphant piece of storytelling." -- Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl "This is such a gleeful piece of writing. Greenblatt writes with his customary exuberance - which, of course, perfectly suits his principal subject, the life and work of Christopher Marlowe." -- Simon Russell Beale "[A] riveting and evocative biography of Elizabethan playwright and spy Christopher Marlowe." -- Daily Express, "Books of the Year" "The magic of Dark Renaissance, the usual Greenblatt magic, is the way he uses the individual life to illuminate corners of the surrounding culture." -- Tablet "Stephen Greenblatt's attempt to reconstruct the playwright's story is brilliant." -- John Mullan - New Statesman "Stephen Greenblatt's superb skills as a literary historian and critic are thrillingly on display in Dark Renaissance.... With its mix of fastidious scholarship, storytelling chops, and educated guesswork, Dark Renaissance illuminates a cause for celebration in an age of darkness." -- Heller McAlpin - Christian Science Monitor "[A] brilliant work.... Dark Renaissance is not to be missed by scholars or admirers of Marlowe or Shakespeare." -- Ray Palen - Bookreporter "Greenblatt efficiently traces Marlowe's improbable journey.... Greenblatt writes comfortably for a general audience...skillfully melding conventional biography with accessible and informative literary criticism." -- Harvey Freedenberg, BookPage, starred review "In Dark Renaissance, Greenblatt provides a rollicking good read, full of cunning conjecture about Marlowe's life." -- Tobias Grey - Air Mail "Greenblatt excels at immersing the reader in that time and place and has an ear for the delectable turn of phrase. The rich historical detail, thriller-like pacing, and an abundance of intrigue keep the pages turning." -- Bill Kelly - Booklist "In his riveting new biography, Dark Renaissance, Harvard scholar Stephen Greenblatt explores Marlowe's short, subversive life and argues that it was he, even more than Shakespeare, who 'awakened the genius of the English Renaissance.'... [D]azzling." -- Ann Levin - Associated Press "A popular biography from Stephen Greenblatt, one of the most influential living scholars of early modern literature, is a literary event.... [Greenblatt] writes beautifully about Marlowe's adventures, and heartbreakingly about the 'unbridgeable distance' from his origins." -- Kate Maltby - Prospect "An astounding biography.... [C]ompelling and readable.... Greenblatt's accessible biography leaves the impression that if Marlowe hadn't been 'too relentlessly destructive' and continued to write as radically and brilliantly as he did, it would be Christopher Marlowe, and not William Shakespeare, recognised as the greatest writer in English history." -- James Carey-Douglas - Daily Mail "[A] masterly biography.... Each chapter tells its own fascinating story as the episodes and aspects of Marlowe's life are presented with vivid imagination and expert commentary." -- Paul Edmondson - Church Times "Greenblatt's knowledge of the times, and of that remarkable phenomenon the Elizabethan theatre, makes this essential reading for anyone interested in Marlowe and his period." -- Oldie "A fine example of how narrative nonfiction can ensnare readers as deeply as plotted novels." -- Library Journal, "Best Books of 2025" "A scintillating biography of Christopher Marlowe by one of America's leading humanities scholars." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Illustrations
41 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-324-13421-3 (9781324134213)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Stephen Greenblatt
Dark Renaissance
The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival
E-Book
09/2025
W. W. Norton & Company
€29.49
Available for download
Stephen Greenblatt
Dark Renaissance
The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival
Book
09/2025
WW Norton & Co
€30.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Stephen Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. A leading scholar of English Renaissance literature, he serves as general editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and The Norton Shakespeare. He is the author of fourteen books, including Dark Renaissance and the Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning The Swerve.