Class News
Stephen Greenblatt ’64 discusses Christopher Marlowe
Stephen Greenblatt
the author
On November 6, 2025 in a Class of 1964 Zoom event attended by 87 classmates, spouses, and friends, Stephen Greenblatt ’64 discussed his engaging new book about Christopher Marlowe, titled Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival. The book paints a lively portrait of Marlowe’s life, the complex fabric of Elizabethan society, and the transformational ways in which Marlowe’s transgressive writings invigorated English theater and inspired his contemporary, collaborator, and rival, William Shakespeare. Pete Putzel moderated the session.
Dark Renaissance is a riveting biography of Christopher Marlowe, a transgressive genius who fundamentally helped to create the English Renaissance. Greenblatt presents Marlowe's short, brilliant, and dangerous life as a thriller-like narrative, detailing his journey from a cobbler's son to a celebrated dramatist and government spy recruited while at university. Greenblatt immerses readers in the brutal and fearful world of Elizabethan England, showing how Marlowe's classical education offered an escape into skepticism and daring imagination.
Pete Putzel
the moderator
The book delves into Marlowe's personality, including his documented atheism and possible homosexuality, which made his existence precarious. It explores how his work as a spy influenced groundbreaking plays like Tamburlaine and Doctor Faustus. Greenblatt argues that Marlowe's cascade of invention in poetry and drama “awakened the genius of the English Renaissance.” By making both Marlowe and his historical context live for the reader, the book shows how his radical talent helped to catapult England from a cultural backwater into a crucible of creativity.
Greenblatt’s book is a masterpiece of writing. Many books about historical periods are stultifying dull, mired in a litany of pedantic details. Not this one. The details here are crafted to bring Marlowe and his times to life, transporting you back to that era.
The following 86-minute video of the Zoom event starts with short introductions by Don Van Doren, the event organizer, and Pete Putzel, the moderator. The balance of the time is a presentation by Stephen Greenblatt, punctuated by questions posed by Pete Putzel.
Stephen Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, the author of fifteen books, and has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and many other honors.