March 2016 - The Marlowe Papers - Ros Barber

This was a full length novel written in blank verse- specifically iambic pentameter- modelled on the writing of William Shakespeare or possibly Christopher Marlowe.

The tale purported to be the story of Christopher Marlowe in exile as a heretic and atheist, at a time when religious extremism was rife under Elizabeth 1. He travels under a range of aliases often carrying out espionage missions for the Queen. He continues to write the entertaining  plays for which he gained renown and popularity in England ; but must now write under a nom de plume as he escaped from England having been helped to stage his own death. He steals the name of William Shakespeare an aspiring author who rarely leaves his country home.

Although some of us opened this book with some trepidation, we found it readable once we got into it. This was helped in some part by the way the verse was laid out on the page so that it was usually clear who was speaking. It helped too, that there were clear chapters often with helpful headings and some of them very short. The chronology of events, though, was not always easy to follow.

I'm not sure that any of us were convinced that CM was in fact WS but we all acknowledged the huge
amount of research underpinning this work. We recognised many of the historical figures included.

The Marlowe papers prompted an animated discussion, during which we were reminded that the written works of the Elizabethan and earlier periods grew out of an oral tradition.

Comments included:
I enjoyed it more than expected but could only read it in bite size chunks.
Enjoyed it but not something I'd usually read for pleasure.
Clever. I learned from it. A satisfying read
I loved it. It flowed over me. The love scenes were beautifully written.

Several of us admired the effort behind it and the ability to sustain the medium of verse in such a long work.
One person did not enjoy it as much, being concerned about the historical accuracy. And found it took a lot of reading to extract the story.
The scores:6;7;6;7;5;7;8 = 6.5