Customer Reviews

A Dead Man in Deptford

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Our book group comprised of many retired teachers read this book recently; some members balked at its difficulty, but those who persevered felt that reading the book was a very rich experience. How else could you really sense the danger, the intrigue, the raw energy, and the vitality of the times. Burgess brings the period alive brilliantly through his inventive language and ironic humor. The book gets easier as it goes along, so stick with it; you'll be rewarded.

Marlowe is presented in full here. You can feel him touching the pages as you read them. You can taste the food he eats, drink what he drinks. This is a visceral book. Burgess was a linguist, so, of course, the dialect might prove a challenge to some, but, in the same way that the invented slang of Clockwork Orange made the experience of that book more vivid and real, the Elizabethanisms of Dead Man only give it more depth and color. The "Elizabethanisms" of this book are, in any case, less challenging than those served up in Burgess' earlier, more difficult but also astonishingly rewarding Shakespeare book "Nothing Like The Sun". Disregard those few on here who warn you off this book, particularly if you revel in language that comes rich and thick and genuine.

...or self-indulgent. I thought the language was the best thing about it -- just archaic enough to lend it an air of realism.

Sure, if you like James Michener or Colleen McCullough, this is not the book for you; but if you want a good (if tragic) story, some brilliantly-drawn characters, and a breath of authentic Elizabethan air -- or just an antidote to "Shakespeare in Love" (which was admittedly just as brilliant in a completely different way), read "Dead Man in Deptford".

Regardless of whether you are a diehard Marlovian or not, Burgess' novel is a well crafted, loving treatise to the loftiness and the bawdiness of Elizabethan English. The story of Kit Marlowe, the Jim Morrison of his time, is richly imagined using the scant but intriguing information left to us. I recommend this book highly.

First time I read this book I considered it pretty much a bunch of sex scenes strung together with philosophical ramblings. Later I went back to it for another try, and I'm glad I did. It's an incredible book. It *feels* Elizabethan, not just in the language, not just in the historical accuracy, but in every detail of the characters' thought and sensibility that's typical of Burgess at the very top of his game. It also makes amends (in plenty) for anyone who was disgusted by the attitude toward homosexuality portrayed in The Wanting Seed (in fact, remembering that Burgess had written this book was the only thing that kept me from flinging TWS across the room, well, that and the fact that it was a library book). Readers interested in Marlowe will also find an insightful if maybe not totally groundbreakingly original view of his philosophy, life and plays and the relationship between them.

Anthony Burgess is a masterful novelist whose playful sense of linguistics informs this wonderful novel that speculates about the life and death of Shakespeare's contemporary, the playwright Christopher Marlowe. Burgess has steeped himself in the history and language of Elizabethan times, and the result is a completely successful evocation of that era in all its beauty and horror, with its philosophic adventurers bravely seeking truth and its dogmatic religious authorities plunging nations into war. Intellectually challenging and emotionally moving, this is one of the finest novels I have read in quite a while.

You need a degree of perseverance, but it's well worth it. Oh - and you also need a broad mind; some of the descriptions are disturbing.

Burgess writes in a form of Elizabethan/Early Modern English which can become irritating at times. His insistence on name variation can become repetitive - I really don't need to know how many versions there are of Marlowe, Shakespeare, Poley et al every time they are mentioned.

I am no Marlowe expert - which is partly why I read the book, and re-reading of 'Nothing Like the Sun' I found annoying - but it seems to me to be well researched and the explanation of Marlowe's death seemed to me to be convincing.

The supposed author is only referred to in the final chapter and I now have to discover who he is. This might normally annoy me, but I like a challenge and I hope that the internet will provide the answer.