Customer Reviews

Tamburlaine Must Die

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"The dead are equal." "The dead are dead."

Louise Welsh knows how to distill a potion of historical mystery into a novella of such power that it compels the reader to read this treat in one sitting. Unlike many authors who fictionalize history as the basis for novels, Welsh merely takes an isolated idea and expands on it like a theme and variations, all the while creating an atmosphere so vivid that he reader is utterly transported to the time, the place, and the consequences of her story.

Based on the fact that the death of playwright Christopher Marlowe has never been explained, Welsh focuses on a theory based on a character created by Marlowe - one Tamburlaine, a man of scandal and impetuous actions who was Marlowe's most evil concoction - explains the bizarre facts behind the mystery.

Set in 1593 when the Plague was eating London alive, Christopher Marlowe is summoned form the bed of his wealthy patron Thomas Walsingham to the Privy Council of the Queen where he is questioned about acts of heresy (in actuality a witch hunt to explain the dire etiology of the Plague!). Notes have been left throughout the city of London in the name of Tamburlaine and Marlowe has 72 hours to discover the plot behind the lies that implicate him as a traitor against the kingdom.

Populated with fellow actors (especially Blaize, a former lover and popular actor on the stages of London), writers, booksellers, and even figures such as Sir Walter Raleigh, this romp through the filth and pestilence that Welsh so well paints as London is as tense as any thriller, as illuminating as any psychological study, and as entertaining as history can be in the hands of a great novelist. She is an accomplished wordsmith and as creative a writer as any writing today. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, February 2005

I thought this book was fantastic. It grips the reader, and leads them on an evocative journey through London, and closer to Marlowe's death. The story is built around historical facts, but in avoiding going up to Marlowe's death, Welsh avoids having to deal with the various theories and contradictory pieces of evidence surrounding Marlowe's murder. As for the man himself, in the book he is a witty, likeable man, and the reader connects to him, and feels for him, making his outcome even more tragic. Fantastic

Historically overshadowed by the Legend of the Time, Mr. Shakespeare, Christopher (Kit) Marlowe still holds a candle to the Bard, controversies, arguments, beliefs, and proofs aside. Indeed, Marlowe's great plays ("Tamburlaine the Great," "The Jew of Malta," "Doctor Faustus," " Edward II") are classic in their complexities, as now some five centuries have proven. In "Tamburlaine Must Die," Louise Welsh has taken Marlowe and engineered a tautly written (140 pages) three day episode in his life. Alas, it's the last three days of his life, but still a brief segment of it. Welsh manages to capture the tonal integrity and dynamic symmetry of the time and usher these events into an absorbing "mini-mystery/thriller."

One of the celebrated wits (and geniuses) of the Elizabethan stage, Marlowe's life on and off stage was anything but dull as he mesmerized his age (and generations thereafter) with this antics, theatrics, and devotion to his Queen and country. Much has been speculated (and little proved) in all this time; still, his is a life worth examining, and while we may never know the truth, it was still a life that continues to fascinate us. (Anthony Burgess's brilliant "A Dead Man in Deptford" is a highly recommended side-read to this book, incidentally.)

Welsh introduces us (without dispelling any of the rumors, innuendos) to Marlowe enjoying some free time away from the throes of plague-ridden London as a guest of his patron Walsingham,. This respite is suddenly interrupted by a summons from the Privy Council, setting into motion the ultimate actions of these final 72 hours. The Council gives him an offer he thinks he cannot refuse--betray Walter Raleigh or forfeit his own life, due to charges made against him (heresy, among other charges). Verses, deemed heretical by the Council, have appeared about town, signed by Tamburlaine, one of Marlowe's most ruthless characters. The Council is holding Marlowe responsible. And the story line's hook: who is this person and why is he doing these terrible things to our Kit.

Welsh gives us a viable picture of the underside of the Elizabethan world, this world of theatrics and espionage (Marlowe had done spy work for the crown) where apparently honor and ethics don't exist. At the same time she's giving us a history lesson, Welsh also expertly presents an exciting thriller, albeit a brief one. Told in the first person, of course, it ends before his death (readers will know Marlowe's history, surely!) . The author presents us with a central character, for better or for worse, who ends up with all our sympathies. The many varied accounts of his death clearly beside the point, Marlowe's portrait is that of a brilliant, yet human, 29-year-old, a multi-talent genius, a "rock star" of his own time, one who's fate was destined to end before he really got started. (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

I read Welsh's first release, 'The Cutting Room', when the paperback was released and I read it during a day off work. Looking back, I wish I'd went to work but my memories of the book were that it was dull. The only interesting part, for me, was Glasgow and being able to comment on places I knew. I don't even remember the ending or how it came about; it just happened and thought along the lines of "Whatever, almost done now!"

So, given that it was a first work, I decided to try her second, the historical novella called 'Tamburlaine Must Die'. Here's the blurb from the inside cover:

"1593 and London is a city on edge. Under threat from plague and war, it's a desperate place where strangers are unwelcome and severed heads grin from spikes on Tower Bridge.

Playwright, poet and spy, Christopher Marlowe has three days to live. Three days in which he confronts dangerous government factions, double agents, necromancy, betrayal and revenge in his search for the murderous Tamburlaine, a killer who has escaped from between the pages of his most violent play...

'Tamburlaine Must Die' is the swashbuckling adventure story of a man who dares to defy both God and State - and discovers that there are worse fates than damnation."

From that you would think it was a fun bit of historical fiction rife with twists and turns, dark moments, and something to say on the topics of religion, the state, crime, and the black arts. Instead it's a fast paced dirge bereft of anything resembling excitement or content. But, just to shock you, it has a bit of gratuitous homosexual sex to kick off the proceedings.

Whatever Welsh's intentions were with this novella, they were most certainly not achieved. She sets the story in London, a city for which authors down the years have shown us all the nooks and crannies, but the pages are lifeless. London, who should be a character in herself, comes across as a sleepy hamlet. The novella hints at issues such as religion and politics but they are mostly background mentions, tangential to the story of Marlowe that this book deals with. And, finally, the characters, including the narrator, are lack-lustre, each one failing to leap out of the page which is hardly the stuff of a self-proclaimed swashbuckler. At the very least it could have looked deeper into the Marlowe history rather than seem like a below par version of German film, 'Run Lola Run', reduced to one act.

The problem with Welsh's writing in 'Tamburlaine Must Die' is that she seems to rely too heavily on nouns to create pictures. So, rather than waste paper by building up an atmosphere in a dusty bookshop, for example, she just lists books and other curiosities: ballads, woodcuts, poems, romances, prayer books, etc. Despite all the people in the bookshop, there is no life in any of them.

All in all, it's just a dull book with little to say on anything, even when it comes to speculation over the Marlowe myth.

Louise Welsh's first novel The Cutting Room was a sure fire hit, and now she has written an absolutely sensational novella set in Elizabethan England with playwright Christopher Marlowe as the main protagonist. Sexually ambiguous, and with a penchant for making mischief, Marlowe was unexplainably knifed to death at house in Deptford, on the evening of Wednesday 30th May 1593. With only four lighted candles and an evening to write his account, Marlowe is racing against time to record his confessional before his past inevitably catches up with him. He must recount and narrate the perilous path he trod, where he made some powerful friends and some equally powerful enemies.

His story is set against a portrait of a City unnerved by plague and on edge with the threat of war. Times are desperate, tempers are stretched, and the Privy Council has begun to investigate Marlowe for heresy. On the 19th May 1593, Marlowe is installed in Scadbury, the country house of his patron, Thomas Walsington. He has fled London to escape the Plague, and has been enjoying the pastoral air. But after a night of vivid seduction by Walsington, Marlowe is then summoned to London, where the Privy Council accuses him of circulating blasphemous pamphlets under the pseudonym Tamburlaine, which have been mysteriously modeled after Marlowe's own shadowy creation.

Marlowe feigns blamelessness, but perhaps it is already too late, he may end up hanging from the rope. As he races against time to discover who is trying to set him up, Marlowe traverses the sleazy and bloodstained back alleyways of London, at once threatening people, and coercing others into confessing their secrets. At first suspicion points towards Thomas Kyd, a fellow playwright, then towards the actor Thomas Blaize, and finally towards the Queen's consort and trusted adviser, Sir Walter Raleigh. In traditional whodunit style, Welsh keeps the reader guessing as the plot quickly unfolds and Marlowe eventually confronts his nemesis and archenemy in a bloody and violence-fuelled final scene.

The real strength of this novella, however, is the author's talent for bringing the sights, sounds, and smells of 16th century London to life. The stink of the Thames, the urine stained back streets, the stinking fishwives, the sails of the windmills on Highgate Hill, and the multitudinous alehouses packed with hump-backed fiddlers and drunks. Welch describes a city fall of jugglers and tumblers, vagabonds and rogues, stodgy old booksellers, prostitutes and shady booksellers, "a parade of people who, having nothing to sell, sold themselves."

Marlowe is always looking over his shoulder as death courts him. He moves through a city full of espionage, assassination, and murder. Tamburlaine Must Die is a terrific and fast read, full of action and vivid description. Welsh is obviously having lots of fun speculating on what may have really happened to Marlowe, and this story, shaded with a kind of ambivalent sexuality, and full of educated guess work, contributes greatly to a mystery that unfortunately may never be solved. Mike Leonard February 05.

Louise Welsh's "Tamburlaine Must Die" is an enjoyable read, but a vexing one. Christopher "Kit" Marlowe, playwright, lover, and spy, is one of England's great rogues and his mysterious death (accidentally killed in drunken fight or assassinated by higher powers?) is one of the most delightfully intriguing tales to come out of Elizabethan England. So why does Welsh limit herself to 140 small pages (with a big font, no less)?

It surely isn't out of a lack of talent or a lack of familiarity with Marlowe. Welsh is an entertaining writer who dares to tell the story of Marlowe's last days from Marlowe's perspective. A poet and playwright until the end, Marlowe can't help but throw off japes, witty asides, and biting sarcasm as he seeks to escape his doom. Every step rings true in this work, as Marlowe emerges as a selfish hedonist whose survival instinct is perhaps only exceeded by his desire to see his works become immortal.

Welsh also has a command of the dirty, steamy life in the stews of London -- her descriptions of life among the commoners are brief yet vivid.

While one cannot quibble with an author writing a lean, mean treatment of a small subject (considering how much bloat and gas can be found is so many larger works), one wishes that Welsh had bitten off a bit more to chew with Marlowe. Well worth your time (since "Tamburlaine Must Die" commands so little of it) and good for a chuckle or two in addition to some thrills, this book is nevertheless not a "must read" by any stretch of the imagination.

There are some clever references to Elizabethan historical figures, but an otherwise forgettable novel. The first person narrative, told exclusively from Christopher Marlowe's perspective, limits the scope of the novel. While the main protagonist is somewhat likable, the plot and time constraints do little to explore his character more sufficiently.

This novella does successfully capture the flavor of the times, but it ultimately cannot decide what it wants to be -- a mystery? a pseudo-memoir? an exploration of the last days of a man who suspects his time is up?

It makes an attempt at all of these, but doesn't succeed in any of them. For a short piece of fiction, the writing needs to be absolutely concrete with nothing extraneous, but there are scenes (such as an episode with Dr. John Dee) that, while interesting, do nothing to move the story forward - and there are a couple of soft porn sex scenes that are not only unnecessary, but so poorly written as to be almost comical, which certainly breaks the flow of the story.

Some authors' mistakes can nearly ruin a story at the beginning. The editors should have caught this in a tale supposedly being written in English in 1593: Page 29, final line final word, "mesmerized". That word is derived from the career of Franz Anton Mesmer 1735-1815. Marlowe would no more have used that word than he would have used "quisling government" or "Jeffersonian democracy".

"The secret life of Kit Marlow" is an interesting concept: intrigue, sex. violence, betrayal, poetry. However, the book is pulpy, tedious and unsatisfying.