Name: Doctor Faustus (New Mermaids)
SKU: 51113775
Price: 326.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Christopher Marlowe
ISBN: 9781474295178

Type

Physical Book

Author

Christopher Marlowe

Publisher

Bloomsbury Academic

Year

2018

Language

English

Pages

112

Format

Paperback

ISBN13

9781474295178

Edition No.

Synopsis "Doctor Faustus (New Mermaids) "

In Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus a distinguished scholar turns away from learning and embraces necromancy to satisfy his yearning for knowledge, power and influence. Faustus trades his soul to Lucifer for the secrets of the universe, only to find that satisfaction remains beyond his grasp. His quest for fame and thirst for knowledge eventually results in his damnation. One of the most spectacular and popular plays of the Elizabethan stage, Faustus' fantastical mix of high-minded theology and low-brow slapstick has allured generations of readers and playgoers in the ensuing centuries. Christopher Marlowe's Faustus has been regularly rewritten, adapted, performed, and parodied across the ages, speaking to its tenacious grip upon the public imagination. This fully re-edited, modernised play text is accompanied by incisive commentary notes, while its lively introduction will helpfully guide you through the fume of fact and legend that has accompanied the play across the centuries, from its premiere in the late sixteenth century to its most recent incarnation on stage and film. The New Mermaids plays offer: * Modernized versions of the play text edited to the highest textual standards * Fully annotated student editions with obscure words explained and critical, contextual and staging insight provided on each page * Full introductions analyzing content, themes, author background and stage history

Christopher Marlowe

(Author)

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Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) was an Elizabethan playwright, poet, and translator. His life remains a great mystery surrounded by all sorts of legends. He was born in Canterbury the same year as William Shakespeare into a prosperous middle-class family. He studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1584 and completed his Master's in 1587. Initially, Cambridge authorities were reluctant to grant him the degree because they suspected he had converted to Catholicism, but the Queen's Privy Council intervened on his behalf, emphasizing that Marlowe "had rendered good service to Her Majesty" and had been working for the "benefit of the country." However, the exact nature of the service he provided to the crown is unknown. After his years in Cambridge, Marlowe moved to London where he led a dark and turbulent life (he had a couple of run-ins with the law and had a bad reputation) while trying to make his way as a playwright.

He is the author of seven plays and an incomplete poem: the two parts of Tamburlaine the Great, The Jew of Malta, Edward II, Doctor Faustus, Dido, Queen of Carthage, and The Massacre at Paris, as well as the poem Hero and Leander. In 1593, at just twenty-nine years old, he was arrested and accused of being an atheist. He did not go to prison, and before his case was judged, he died during a brawl in a tavern in Deptford.

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