Exit, Pursued by a Bear
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Henry Stuart, heir to the British throne, is clever, handsome, a real hero. Unfortunately, he is also tone-deaf in his dealings with the Unseen World. Unbeknownst to him, his ambitious plans for a coming-of-age Faerie court masque have enraged his neighbor monarchs, Oberon and Titania. Seeking recompense, they assign the undead poet Kit Marlowe to bring them the heir.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The play's the thing, but when it insults the faerie queen Titania, she sends Kit Marlowe to disrupt the course of human events and Ben Jonson's stage show in a brief story that's just a bit too authentic to be easily digested. There's no doubt from the opening page that Gilman (Cry Murder! in a Small Voice) understands how to write period-accurate dialogue, but it limits the appeal to those who deal regularly in the Elizabethan tongue. While there are clever puns worthy of Shakespeare, most readers will find it a lot of work to mull them over, and ostensible protagonist Jonson is upstaged by Marlowe's tinkering, becoming more scenery than star except in one climactic moment. Set pieces, such as an actor's verbal duel with a fairy, are quite lively, but too much is obscured by plotting and dense prose.
