The Reckoning
Charles Nicholl
  • Published: 2 December 2002
  • ISBN: 9780099437475
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 608
  • RRP: $35.00
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The Reckoning

The Murder of Christopher Marlowe

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‘A masterpiece of biographical investigation’ Richard Holmes

In 1593, the brilliant and 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' - long regarded as dubious.

For the first time tracing Marlowe's shadowy political and intelligence dealings, Charles Nicholl uncovers critical new evidence about that fatal day. Also providing an enthralling revelation of the extraordinary underworld of Elizabethan crime and espionage, the 'secret theatre', Nicholl penetrates four centuries of obscurity to expose a complex and chilling story of entrapment and betrayal.
  • Published: 2 December 2002
  • ISBN: 9780099437475
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 608
  • RRP: $35.00
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Charles Nicholl

Charles Nicholl has written travel books, The Fruit Palace and Borderlines; a study of Elizabethan alchemy, The Chemical Theatre, and a biography of the pamphleteer Thomas Nashe, A Cup of News. He has also written a reconstruction of Sir Walter Raleigh's search for El Dorado, The Creature in the Map, and Somebody Else, which won the 1998 Hawthornden Prize and a biography of Christopher Marlowe, The Reckoning.

Charles Nicholl is the author of nine books of history, biography and travel, including the celebrated The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Biography, and the Crime Writers' Association 'Gold Dagger' Award for non-fiction), Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa (winner of the Hawthornden Prize), The Fruit Palace and The Creature in the Map. He has presented two documentaries for British television, and has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States. He lives in Italy with his wife and children.

Also by Charles Nicholl

Traces Remain
The Lodger
Leonardo Da Vinci
The Fruit Palace
See all

Praise for The Reckoning

This book blows open the world of Elizabethan espionage, and presents the most comprehensive case yet for disbelieving the official inquest

Independent

An absorbing detective story with many twists and dark secrets. It is a passionate tale that haunts the imagination

Michael Sheldon, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

Remarkable...for the first time reveals the true mystery of his death... Extraordinary

The Times

A remarkable academic thriller, a brilliant recontruction

Michael Coveney, Observer

A book full of wit, scholarship and ingenuity... Extraordinary

Colm Toibin, Irish Times

This masterly construction of Marlowe’s murder kept me up all night when I first read it 20 years ago

Thomas Wright, The List