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The Marlowe Papers Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Ros Barber (Author), Jonathan Aris (Narrator), Hodder & Stoughton (Publisher)

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On May 30th, 1593, a celebrated young playwright was killed in a tavern brawl in London. That, at least, was the official version. Now, let Christopher Marlowe tell you the truth: that his 'death' was an elaborate ruse to avoid his being hanged for heresy; that he was spirited across the channel to live on in lonely exile, longing for his true love and pining for the damp streets of London; that he continued to write plays and poetry, hiding behind the name of a colourless printer from Stratford - one William Shakespeare.

With the grip of a thriller and the emotional force of a sonnet, this extraordinary novel in verse gives voice to a man who was brilliant, passionate, mercurial, and not altogether trustworthy. The son of a cobbler who rose so far in Elizabethan society that he counted nobles among his friends and patrons, a spy in the Queen's service, a fickle lover and a declared religious sceptic, he was always courting trouble. When it caught up with him, he was lucky to have connections powerful enough to help him escape.

Memoir, love letter, settling of accounts, and a cry for recognition as the creator of some of the most sublime works in the English language, this is Christopher Marlowe's testament and a tour de force by an award-winning poet: provocative, persuasive and enthralling.

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Product details

Listening Length	8 hours and 50 minutes
Author	Ros Barber
Narrator	Jonathan Aris
Audible.com.au Release Date	01 June 2012
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00NPB907A
Best Sellers Rank	261,655 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1,082 in Poetry (Audible Books & Originals) 9,656 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 14,368 in Historical Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

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4 star		17%
3 star		7%
2 star		4%
1 star		8%

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Peter Hutton

Christopher Marlowe's real story, in his own words?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 October 2020

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Ros adopts the persona of Christopher Marlowe to tell the story of how, far from being killed in a brawl in Deptford, he was whisked away to Europe by fellow members of Lord Burghley’s spy network and continued writing works under a pseudonym. Ros builds on the very credible research of others and joins their dots to construct an intriguing and imaginative tale of what happened to him before and after his supposed demise in 1593. Her writing in verse in the style of Marlowe adds to the intrigue and the sense that you really are listening to this Elizabethan voice from the grave.

Fat face

Clever and challenging

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 September 2013

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Perhaps not the first choice for a holiday read but it is clever in its execution and I found I needed a certain amount of concentration and careful managing when deciding to put it aside. I did enjoy the concept and at last iambic pentameter that I could easily comprehend without looking at the notes. In fact the book jogged along quite quickly and I marvel at the time involved in putting it together. No mean feat.
Perhaps I should have read the blurb more carefully because like other reviewers I was a little taken back when I opened the book and found it entirely in verse. But I took on the challenge and made it to the end.
I won't write at length about the rights and wrongs of whether Marlowe was Shakespeare etc. I read the book for what it was...another viewpoint.
Not everyone's cup of tea but for those who enjoy something a little more challenging then perfect.

teacher

NOT EVERYONE'S CUP OF TEA......

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 April 2014

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but an interesting concept and way of writing. The premise that Marlow escaped and then went on to write the plays we ascribe to Shakespeare is of course not a new one but here we get the back story and it is convincing up to a point. To then make the book a series of poems is to say the least adventurous as it cuts out another layer of readership. I don't ascribe to the theory but I found the book interesting up to a point. In the end the poems became tedious. There some individually good ones but it is hard to sustain the standard.

Gill M

Powerful page turner!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 July 2013

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I really enjoyed this, though remain unconvinced of its basic thesis - i.e. that Marlowe/Marley's Deptford death was faked and that he escaped abroad to write the works generally attributed to Shakespeare. [There's just too much evidence to the contrary - see James Shapiro's brilliant book refuting the arguments adduced in support of other claimants.]

Nevertheless, Barber's account of Marlowe's character and attitudes - and of the milieu he lived in - is moving and convincing and v. sexy - and I loved the fact that the book is written entirely in loose verse (sonnet?) form.

T. Leadbeater

A whowroteit

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 April 2020

Verified Purchase

Brilliant. Almost convinced by the alternative history but thoroughly convinced by the form. One of the best books I have ever read.

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