Christopher Marlowe: Four Plays: Tamburlaine, Parts One and Two, The Jew of Malta, Edward II and Dr Faustus (New Mermaids)

We recently read Dr. Faustus, Edward II and Jew of Malta for a book group. This version is great because of the very amplefootnotes which are very helpful. Faustus' soliloquies are just magnificent. Many of our book group were dismayed that Faustusreally was damned. Suppose we have Goethe to blame for that. We all agreed that reading Marlowe was in many ways easier thanShakespeare. Wonder why this should be so ?

I'm a big fan of Marlowe, so of course my review is going to be very high--I think that had he lived, he would have been the top bard of the Early Modern period and not Shakespeare. The guy was way ahead of his time in subject matter, in the way that he constructed scenes, and in understanding the way that the world was heading (out of mercantilism and into the brave new world of capitalism, colonialism, and global empire).

Marlowe is a playwright on par with Shakespeare. I am surprised that he is not more popular than he is, as the two were contemporaries at the time. I have really enjoyed studying the Jew of Malta.

First class service and first class product. Many thanks.

Just what my son needed for his A Level