The book teems with the erudition and wonder that permeates Greenblatt’s Will in the World and The Swerve ... Less a straightforward biography, more an evocation of Marlowe’s milieu, swimming in lush detail, immersing us in England’s social ferment at a hinge moment ... [Greenblatt's] analysis is Shakespearean in spirit, crisp and conversational, tipped with puns and wordplay ... Some of the book’s most vivid chapters chart the artistic collaboration and rivalry between Shakespeare and Marlowe ... A genial tutorial on the vitality of a humanities education ... His generous insights on Marlowe and Shakespeare and their peers are antidotes to our festering obsessions with luxury, technology, and status.
Mr. Greenblatt tells this murky but exhilarating tale with pace and gusto ... Mr. Greenblatt surveys theories of the slaying but none entirely convince ... Brisk and gripping.
