A Dead Man in Deptford [Paperback]

Anthony Burgess (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1996

In pitch-perfect and compulsively readable prose, Burgess recreates the world of Elizabethan England--from the court and its intrigue to the theater and its genius--in this life of Christopher Marlowe, murdered in suspicious circumstances in a tavern brawl in Deptford. "A daring romp through history, theology, sex, language, and espionage."--Kirkus Reviews (starred).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Burgess's last book, published in England two years ago, shortly before the author's death, is a masterly piece of work. It is an extraordinary reflection on the state of American publishing that the novel had to wait so long for publication here, and then be brought out only by a small but enterprising company like Carroll & Graf. Like Burgess's Nothing Like the Sun 30 years ago (arguably the finest novel ever written about Shakespeare), this volume reflects the author's magical sense of language and his deep immersion in the Elizabethan ethos. The story of the short life of brilliant young playwright Christopher Marlowe is ostensibly told by an actor of the time; so perfectly is the period voice caught that it is hard to believe the novelist was not transcribing contemporary documents. Marlowe is seen as a student at Cambridge, soon caught up in the life of a secret agent, shuttling between England and France as the religious struggles of the time reach their apex in the slaying of Mary Queen of Scots. Himself a skeptic, and an active homosexual (frolicking with the young heir of the powerful Earl of Walsingham), Marlowe manages for several risky years to keep his head above the sectarian waters, working when he can at his plays, ever after "the mighty line." Then some of his fellow conspirators, suspicious of him, fabricate a brawl on a spring evening in a tavern and he is slain, still in his 20s. Burgess's command of his material is absolute; he wrote his student thesis, he tells us, on Marlowe and brings a lifetime's linguistic and fictional gifts to this headlong, shining, cruel portrait of a terrifying-but posthumously glorious-age.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Written to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Marlowe's death in 1593, the late Burgess's final book is essentially a novelization of Charles Nicholl's revisionist biography, The Reckoning (LJ 3/1/94). In Nicholl's view, Marlowe was a secret agent paid by spymaster Francis Walsingham to infiltrate the insurgent Catholic underground. However, as a freethinker and a homosexual, Marlowe had little use for Catholics or Protestants and preferred to spend his time promoting atheism and smoking the new drug tobacco, a habit he likened to "buggery of the lungs." Burgess brilliantly evokes the murky world of Elizabethan politics, where even a person's name is a mystery. Marlowe is also known as Morley and Merlin, and an apprentice playwright answers to Shagspaw, Choxper, and Jacquespere. One of this prolific author's finest books, A Dead Man in Deptford is a worthy companion volume to Burgess's classic Shakespeare novel, Nothing Like the Sun (1964). For all collections.?Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers (May 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786703210
• ISBN-13: 978-0786703210
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,930,045 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anthony Burgess (25th February 1917-22nd November 1993) was one of the UK's leading academics and most respected literary figures. A prolific author, during his writing career Burgess found success as a novelist, critic, composer, playwright, screenwriter, travel writer, essayist, poet and librettist, as well as working as a translator, broadcaster, linguist and educationalist. His fiction also includes NOTHING LIKE THE SUN, a recreation of Shakespeare's love-life, but he is perhaps most famous for the complex and controversial novel A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, exploring the nature of evil. Born in Manchester, he spent time living in Southeast Asia, the USA and Mediterranean Europe as well as in England, until his death in 1993.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dead Man in Deptford, July 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: A Dead Man in Deptford (Hardcover)

A novelization of the career and death of Elizabethan writer Kit Marlowe.

Wonderfully clever on a sentence level, and also a realistic evocation of period mentalities. I found nothing that seemed anachronistic here; the characters are steeped in the thought, literature, and problems of their times.

Sometimes the cleverness detracts from the story. The unusual dialogue punctuation in particular makes conversations hard to follow. At times the themes have great power, but too often they, as well as plot and characterization, sag under the weight of verbal expression. A framing device -- as well as a puzzling new voice coming in at the end -- doesn't add much and seems unnecessary.

Overall, I found this to be an ambitious and well-written book which will probably lose a number of readers who can't follow its verbal twists and turns, but which is well worth reading.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elizabethan England has never seemed so real, August 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Dead Man in Deptford (Paperback)

I got around to reading Burgess just after his death, starting, for no particular reason, with "Dead Man in Deptford". I was dismayed on the one hand to find that I had been neglecting a terrific author all these years; on the other hand, I won't soon run out of Burgess reading matter. I immediately began devouring his other novels, starting with Nothing Like the Sun (an excellent companion piece to Dead Man, but not as gripping). Perhaps one doesn't "devour" Burgess; he is by no means an easy, quick read. For one thing, the neophyte Burgess reader will want a good dictionary close at hand (soon, however, you'll be able to pepper your conversation with words like "gallimaufry"). And there is always the sense while reading Burgess, for me at least, that I am missing some of the fun -- there are erudite puns and sly jokes on nearly every page. But for all that, Burgess never forgets that his job is to tell a story, and once drawn into the dark Elizabethan world of this novel (admittedly, it may take a few pages), readers will be richly rewarded with a walloping good yarn. Never before has Elizabethan England come to life for me as in Dead Man, and a dangerous, smelly, ribald world it is. Two reviewers have complained that the novel is dull. Let's see: Burgess gives us kinky sex of both the homo- and hetero kind, epic drinking sprees, vivid descriptions of traitors to the crown being eviscerated on the gibbet, barroom knifings, transcontinental intrigues, lecherous royalty, religious rivalries, and more double-crosses than you'll find in a dozen pop thrillers. If this be dull, then I'm not ready for exciting.

Although a familiarity with Christopher Marlowe's work and his place in English theater would undoubtedly make "Dead Man" a somewhat richer experience, it's hardly necessary to become enmeshed in the intrigues surrounding his life. It's like Burgess' puns and vocabulary; readers can miss much and still reap the rewards of a truly well-crafted novel. The whole Elizabethan era comes to stunning life, redolent of smoke, sweat, blood, and Rhenish wine.

Burgess fans may also enjoy a chapter in Paul Theroux's "My Other Life", in which Theroux hosts Burgess and a Burgess-phile at his London apartment for dinner, with hilariously disastrous results.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stick With It, It's Worth It, March 5, 2003

By 

Robert Franklin (Belmont, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Dead Man in Deptford (Hardcover)

While some have said this is a difficult book (and I must admit I felt that way at first) if you relax and stick with it you'll find that it will begin to flow very smoothly.
Burgess takes us into the mind of Marlowe; his images are vivid. There were many passages that I had to reread, not because they were difficult, but because they were so beautiful. Sir Walter Raleigh introducing Kit to tobacco is marvelous.
I have to agree with those who found that following the characters was a bit confusing. I had the good fortune to have read Charles Nichol's book 'The Reckoning" first, a true story about the death of Marlowe. That work is a great introduction to most of the players in Burgess's book.
Please, don't be intimidated by "Dead Man", it is a pleasing and enlightening work.