Christopher Marlowe was a renowned English playwright, translator, and poet who achieved success before his death, whose life has often seemed worthy of a novel. Indeed, Marlowe, a contemporary of Shakespeare, was an Elizabethan spy, an atheist, and homosexual, reasons for which a man could be executed. In fact, and as told by Hesse Phillips in his novel The Betrayal of Christopher Marlowe, the writer was judged, convicted, and placed in custody precisely for these offenses, although his death would occur in a very different way: Marlowe was murdered by a stab to the eye in violent circumstances whose origin remains a matter of dispute among various versions. And that is where Phillips’s fiction takes root, tracing the final days of Marlowe’s life to lead us on a macabre countdown to this point, focusing mainly on his last two weeks. At that moment, accused of sodomy, heresy and treason, Marlowe obtains monitored liberty and, with the fear provoked by knowledge of his own fate, remains faithful to his principles, refusing to let his spirit bend to what is expected of him.
The story is dark, politics a minefield of betrayals and intrigues, and the city lives under the threat of the plague. Moreover, not even its protagonist is a likeable man, and perhaps for that reason the novel shines even brighter. Not only does Marlowe fight to survive; everyone does, with the difference that the reader knows that its protagonist will not make it. Phillips moves within the intrigue; at a certain point his narrator addresses the reader to explain that his protagonist will die soon at the hands of a man he does not yet know, thereby prompting us to anticipate before presenting a luminous, yet forbidden, love story between Marlowe and the man with whom he will seek happiness, achieving in us a sense of hope even knowing it will be in vain. Because by that moment Marlowe is no longer Marlowe, now he is Kit, and Phillips guides us toward an ending capable of moving even the most stoic reader.
The author builds a complex story in which London becomes a living and dangerous character, and the stars align to produce a fitting eclipse that indeed occurred in those times. The narration is lively and impeccable, moving like a kaleidoscope that allows us to know intimately the diverse characters who populate its pages. The Queen, or perhaps we should say the Crown, becomes a terrifying character, and love will not be only a source of light but also the hidden driving force behind many acts of lovers and beloved. And perhaps the reader is like me, having come to this novel to learn about the playwright and the strange circumstances surrounding his death, but I assure you that you will leave the reading with Fritz engraved in that corner of the soul that book lovers keep for those characters who have made us feel.
The Betrayal of Christopher Marlowe is a hard-hitting novel set in an era defined by torture and violence, in which a man dares to love another, knowing it could cost him his life. A historical fiction that does not feel like a debut novel.
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Author: Hesse Phillips. Title: The Betrayal of Christopher Marlowe. Translation: Efrén del Valle. Publisher: RBA. Available from: Todostuslibros.