Shakespeare and Co.: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and the Other Players in His Story

by Stanley Wells

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'Enjoyable, lively ... such a pleasure to read ... renders the drama of Shakespeare's contemporaries more than fringe entertainment' Independent

Shakespeare is one of the greatest of all English figures, considered a genius for all time. Yet as this enthralling book shows, he was at heart a man of the theatre, one among a community of artists in the teeming world of Renaissance London - from the enigmatic spy Christopher Marlowe to the self-aggrandizing Ben Jonson, from the actor Richard Burbage to the brilliant Thomas Middleton. By bringing Shakespeare's contemporaries to life, Shakespeare & Co throws fresh new light on the man himself.

'Warm, cheerful, generous ... Wells sketches a whole gallery of Shakespeare's fellow playwrights ... He brings each vividly to life, making you feel that you've met them personally in some Blackfriars tavern' Simon Callow

'It was a time and place teeming with excitement, anecdote and incident, and Wells, in this richly enjoyable work, brings it to life with a novelist's sense of the telling detail' Dominic Dromgoole

'Enthralling' Observer

'This is one of the most sane and exciting books on Shakespeare I have read for a long time' Scotland on Sunday

  • ISBN10 0141017139
  • ISBN13 9780141017136
  • Publish Date 30 August 2007 (first published 3 August 2006)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Penguin Books Ltd