The Marlowe Papers: A Lush, Inspired and Provocative Novel by Ros Barber

On January 26, 2013, in Book Reviews, Fiction, Historical Novel, by Editor

With the grip of a thriller and the emotional force of a sonnet, this remarkable novel in verse gives voice to a man who was brilliant, passionate, and mercurial. A cobbler’s son who counted nobles among his friends, a spy in the Queen’s service, a fickle lover and a declared religious skeptic, Christopher Marlowe always courted trouble. Memoir, love letter, confession, and settling of accounts, The Marlowe Papers brings Christopher Marlowe and his era to vivid life.

The Elizabethans – A Vivid Overview of 16th-Century Britain by A. N. Wilson

On July 14, 2012, in Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, by Editor

An acknowledged master of the all-encompassing single-volume history, Wilson tells the exhilarating story of the Elizabethan era with all the panoramic sweep of his bestselling The Victorians, and with the wit and iconoclasm that are his trademarks.

Rome and Rhetoric: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar by Garry Wills

On November 27, 2011, in Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, by Editor

Renaissance plays and poetry in England were saturated with the formal rhetorical twists that Latin education made familiar to audiences and readers. Yet a formally educated man like Ben Jonson was unable to make these ornaments come to life in his two classical Roman plays. Garry Wills, focusing his attention on Julius Caesar, here demonstrates how Shakespeare so wonderfully made these ancient devices vivid, giving his characters their own personal styles of Roman speech.