Product Description
Building on the strengths of two previous editions, this revised and enlarged Third Edition continues to offer more of Spenser's poetry than any other comparable volume. All selections are based on early and established texts, fully glossed and precisely annotated, with an Editor's Note following each section.To facilitate discussion of the place of the body and of pastoral elements in Spenser's epic, the Third Edition includes more of The Faerie Queene: from Book II, canto ix (the House of Alma), and from Book VI, the remainder of canto x and all of cantos xi-xii. The Shepheardes Calender is represented by six eclogues, including the much-discussed "Februarie." Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, increasingly a focus of critical attention, is an important addition, and Amoretti is offered in its entirety.

Seventeen critical essays, judiciously chosen from the many published since 1982, have been added to supplement eleven earlier commentaries. New to the Third Edition are theperspectives of Spenser's contemporary William Camden, Virginia Woolf, William Nelson, A. Bartlett Giamatti, Donald Cheney, Judith Anderson, Richard Helgerson, Louis Adrian Montrose, and David Lee Miller. The critical essays on the House of Busyrane, Spenser's pastoral, Muiopotmos, and Amoretti are grouped to "speak" to each other in ways sure to stimulate classroom discussion. This class-tested feature is back by popular demand along with essays by D. C. Allen, Robert A. Brinkley, Ronald P. Bond, Anne Lake Prescott, Andrew D. Weiner, Susanne Lindgren Wofford, Harry Berger, Jr., and Paul Alpers.

A Chronology of Spenser's life and an extensive Bibliography are also included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

O pittious worke of Mutabilitie!
This edition is all right - reasonable level of annotation (most students would benefit from more), justifiable selection, fair show of critical essays; but it's a comedown from the 2nd ed. in every respect, or so it seems to me.The selection from "The Faerie Queene" cuts out Scudamour's relation of his experience in the mysterious Temple of Venus: absolutely essential for anyone reading Book III, which is printed entire in both eds.The pseudo-personal "Colin Clouts Come Home Againe" is a thin substitute, whatever its indications of "the teasing ambiguities of the patronage system" so dear to critics of the 1990s.With the new emphasis on politics rather than philosophy, the "Fowre Hymnes" have gone too; the editors are clearly aiming to reflect "recent critical attention" (their words), but the result somehow suggests that Spenser has become more predictable, less intellectually exciting, over the 10 years between the two editions (1982-1993).As for the choice of critical essays, some things have not been changed when they should have been (the tiny snippet on allegory from "The Kindly Flame" is far too brief to be helpful); on the other hand, the excision of C.S. Lewis's account of the House of Busyrane is simply perverse. Lewis is the critical starting point for this, and later work depends (whatever its attitude) on him.
Obviously a new edition must struggle over the demands of space, but it must also keep in mind the nature of its readership.Who will use this?Not a professional Renaissance scholar, who will own a complete text.So, students, or interested readers, who don't already own the previous edition, and have not necessarily internalized a long tradition of Spenser scholarship.This imposes a serious responsibility on the editors to choose not just fashionably but judiciously.And to limit the bibliography to work published since 1972 (just over 20 years!) is not just injudicious but absurd.(The list for "Epithalamion" does not list Kent Hieatt's seminal study of its structure, to give just one egregious example.)Also, of course, this procedure limits the work's own reach into the future.This bibliography already looks out of date, as one with a broader chronology would not.The same goes for other elements, too: the editors of a fourth edition, on a similarly limited plan, would probably want less on power and more on gender - and thus, with luck, might reintroduce the Temple of Venus, dropped here.
Meanwhile, for the decisions here outlined, so damaging to the lasting value of the book, these editors deserve three stars.

1993 Edition Details
It has been mentioned that only half the "Faerie Queene" is here included.I would like to add that of the 12 months of the "Shepherd's Calendar", only the months January, February, April, October, November & December are included.
I would have prefered that the editors throw out some of those 160 pages ofcritical examinations and include a complete text.
The type face is legible, the paper opacity is adequate, and I especially applaud putting the glossary in the margin so I need not turn to the back of the book to make use of it.
The "Shepherd's Calendar" is illustrated with one woodcut for each month. They are not the elegant sort we get from say Albrecht Durer, but are are in a primitivism style.I found no other illustrations in the rest of the book.

Edmund Spenser's Poetry Hits Home
Until I read this book, I thought I knew everything about Spenser, but Norton has done it again! Insightful and interesting,this anthology of criticism covers everything from "The Faerie Queene" to all the other things Spenser wrote. I had always been a Chaucer hound,but now I've converted to the Spenserian camp. Partake of this grand work and be saved!

An edition which gives maximum help with Spenser's language.
EDMUND SPENSER'S POETRY : Authoritative Texts and Criticism.Third Edition.Selected and Edited by Hugh Maclean and Anne Lake Prescott. 842 pp.London & New York : W. W. Norton & Company, 1993.

Although everyone has heard of Edmund Spenser's amazing narrative poem, 'The Faerie Queene,' it's a pity that few seem to read it.To a superficial glance it may appear difficult, although the truth is that it's basicallya fascinating story that even an intelligent child can follow with enjoyment and interest.

It appears difficult only because of Spenser's deliberately antique English.He needed such an English because he was creating a wholenew dimension of enchantment, a magical world, a land of mystery and adventure teeming with ogres and giants and witches, hardy knights both brave and villainous, dwarfs, magicians, dragons, and maidens in distress, wicked enchanters, gods, demons, forests, caves, and castles, amorous encounters, fierce battles, etc., etc.

To evoke an atmosphere appropriate to such a magical world,a world seemingly distant in both time and place from ours, Spensercreated his own special brand of English.Basically his language is standard Sixteenth Century English, but with antique spellings and afew medievalisms thrown in, along with a number of new words thatSpenser coined himself.The opening lines of the poem are typical :

"A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine, / Y cladd in mightie armes and silver shielde, / Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine, / The cruell markes of many a bloudy fielde...." (page 41).

If, instead of reading with the eye, we read with the ear or aloud, the strange spellings resolve themselves into perfectly familiar words such as clad (clothed), mighty, arms, shield, deep,cruel, marks, bloody, field.And "Y cladd" is just one of those Spenserian medievalisms that simply means "clad" or clothed (i.e., wearing).

The only two words in this passage that might cause problems for the beginner are "pricking" and "dints," and it doesn't take much imagination to realize that these must refer, respectively, to 'riding' (i.e., his horse) and 'dents.'But if you can't guess their meaning,in the present edition a quick glance to the right at their explanatoryglosses will soon apprize you of it, and will save you the trouble of searching for their meaning elsewhere.

Once you've used the side glosses for a little while, progress through Spenser's text becomes a snap.And learning a few hundred words is a small price to pay for entrance into one of the most luxuriant works ever produced by the Western imagination, and one that once entered youwill often want to return to.

The present Norton Critical Edition has been designed for college students, but will appeal to anyone who is looking for an abridged Spenser which gives maximum help with the language, and who might also like to read a little of the best recent criticism.

The first part of the book, besides giving almost 500 large pages ofannotated selections from 'The Faerie Queene' which amount to well over half of Spenser's complete text, also includes a generous selection from Spenser's other poetry :The Shephearde's Calendar; Muipotmos : or The Fate of the Butterflie; Colin Clouts Come Home Againe; Amoretti; and the beautiful Epithalamion and Prothalamion.An Editor's Note exploring important issues follows each selection, and all obscure words have been given convenient explanatory glosses in the right margins.

The second part of the book consists mainly of a wide range of Twentieth-Century Criticism, and contains twenty-five critical essayson various aspects of Spenser, many by noted scholars such asA. Bartlett Giamatti, Thomas P. Roche Jr., Northrop Frye,A. C. Hamilton, Isabel MacCaffrey, Paul Alpers, Louis Martz, andWilliam Nelson.The book is rounded out with A Chronology of Spenser's Life and a very full Selected Bibliography.

Criticism undoubtedly has its value and at times can be stimulating,but Spenser, as one of England's very greatest writers, was of course writing not so much for critics as for you and me.Admittedly his language can be a bit tricky at first, and he certainly isn't to be rushed through like a modern novel.His is rather the sort of bookthat we wish would never end.

His pace is leisurely and relaxed, a gentle flowing rhythmic motion,and that's how he wants us to read him.To get the hang of things, try listening to one of the many available recordings.And when you hit a strange-looking word there will be no need to fret or panic, for a quick glance to the right at its gloss will soon apprize you of its meaning.

So take Spenser slowly, and give his words a chance to work their magic.Let him gently conduct you through his enthralling universe, one that you will find both wholly strange and perfectly familar, since human beings and their multifarious doings are Spenser's real subject, and somewhere in one of his enchanted forests you may one day findyourself. ... Read more

Product Description
Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Edmund Spenser is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Edmund Spenser then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Product Description
Edmund Spenser (1552-99) ranks just below Shakespeare, with Chaucer and Milton, in the pantheon of great writers. In The Faerie Queene, he spins a sub-created fantasy universe that would be the model for Tolkien and Lewis. This poet, whom Milton considered to be a better teacher than the medieval theologians, wrote an epic tale of adventure, love, noble deeds, and faith.

Despite all his acknowledged greatness, almost no one reads Spenser any more. Roy Maynard takes the first book of The Faerie Queene, exploring the concept of Holiness with the character of the Redcross Knight, and makes Spenser accessible again. He does this not by dumbing it down, but by deftly modernizing the spelling, explaining the obscurities in clever asides, and cuing the reader towards the right response.

In today's cultural, aesthetic, and educational wars, Spenser is a mighty ally for the 21st century Christians. Maynard proves himself a worthy mediator between Spenser's time and ours.
—Dr. Gene Edward Veith ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Holiness
When C. S. Lewis read "Phantastes" by George MacDonald he wrote that he encountered holiness. I read "Phantastes" and I agree, but I encountered holiness far more in FQ. I was blown away by the book. The language is archaic, but Maynard does a good job of footnoting the tough words and the hard to understand phrases. He encourages the reader to read FQ aloud and I agree. I have a tin ear for poetry, but even I caught the cadences occasionally and it helped.

Saint George or the Red Cross knight is a flawed character, but he is brave. He fails over and over again, but with fair Una's help, he keeps getting up until he finds grace. I don't catch all the symbolism in the allegory, but the allegorical elements energizes the narrative. I know there is much more going on than what is on the surface.

The author's notes are too cutsey at times, but he shares his enthusiasm with the reader. Maynard comes across as a friend who is encouraging you by saying, "Yep, you're right. This is really great. Are you having fun, yet?"Maynard is obviously a Christian who fundamentally agrees with Spenser on the important things, so Maynard's enthusiasm is real.

Holiness and goodness is palpable in the these pages. It is a life-changing experience. The book is full of gory battles. The battle is real and there are casualties.

Transcendental (but not the Emerson type)
Roy Maynard ought to be commended for aiding us in reading Spenser. Personally, I think Spenser tells a better yarn than Shakespeare, with all due respect to the Bard.This book was written by a Christian, with powerful Christian overtones, and Christians will benefit the most from it.The language is archaic, the story is...well...schockingly relevant.

I said in the title that the book is transcendental.What I mean is the book, in certain sections, touches areas that strikes the reader to the core.No, the hero is not perfect.Yes, he fails over and over again.But the battles he fights!The nature of forgiveness, pain, guilt, ecstatic joy--Spenser pulld no punches.And to point out another irony of historical revisionism prevalent in the public schools:Spenser has sexual allusions (fear not, for they are used to show, in the words of CS Lewis, "the fierceness of Chastity" and the bloody fight that its worth); even more shocking is that Spenser is a proto-Puritan, thus debunking the whole Puritan "prude" myth.By the way, the true hero in the book is King Arthur, not Redcrosse; you will see why later in the book.

Yes, the book is hard to read, even with Maynard's annotations.But oddly enough, it is easy to follow, by and large.I will end with a quote from CS Lewis, "...to read Spenser is to grow in mental health."

Enchanting
I have never had much patience with poetry; I prefer a good story to sentimentalism and obscure imagery. Nevertheless, I read this book when I learned that St. George and the Dragon, one of my favorite stories, is in The Faerie Queen. What a pleasure! I could hardly put the book down. The imagery is so vivid and the language so beautiful. Mr. Maynard's notes are very helpful without being distracting or interrupting the flow of the poetry.

The Journeys of Redcross Knight
For anyone who enjoys reading about knights, legends, and heroic deeds, this book is a must.In a fantasy world, created by Edmund Spencer, the young and inexperienced Redcross Knight must save Lady Una's kingdom from afierce dragon.The annotations and definitions are a valuable contributionto this work originally written inthe 1500's. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

Don't call it "The Fairy Queen"!!!
For goodness' sakes, guys! If you call this book "The Fairy Queen," you'll reveal your profound ignorance. Give it the proper title: The Faerie Queene.

The Faerie Queen
Book arrived in good condition. The response of the dealer was immediate. The book had some underining in ink, but only a few places.
I'm quite satisfied.

A step in the right direction
While the publisher claims this is the first modernized text of Spenser's poem, Robert Kellogg and Oliver Steele's 1965 edition of Books I and II, along with the Mutabilitie Cantos, is in modern spelling; has a much longer and (for its time) well-balanced introduction; has explanatory notes (just the right amount for the beginner) at the foot of the page rather than the end of the book; and provides easier-to-use marginal explanations of difficult words.(For that matter, the entire poem was issued in modern, that is, Victorian, spelling over a century ago by the Chandos Classics; the difference between Victorian and present-day spelling is nearly insignificant.)Still, Brooks-Davies and Everyman did a great service for beginning students by putting this more varied and up-to-date selection into print, and hopefully a complete modern-spelling edition will eventually follow.The one real and curious defect of this volume is that, while the purpose of a modern-spelling text is to help the beginner, Brooks-Davies' marginal glosses actually present an impediment to the beginner by giving TOO MUCH information, slowing his or her understanding of the text rather than speeding it up.

Please with Purchase
I am delighted, this is just like the one I read in college!

Selections from The Faerie Queene review
I thought the reader did an excellent job. I had listened to the Canterbury Tales and I liked this even better. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in poetry. I think it is a must read or listen as the case may be. ... Read more

Product Description
The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Edmund Spenser is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Edmund Spenser then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of poems selected includes some of Spenser's most famous works including the set of pastoral poems, "The Shepheardes Kalender" (1579), which made Spenser's name as a poet, and his great heroic romantic poem, "The Faerie Queene" (1591). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Oxford edition in disguise
This is not really The Works, only the Poetical Works: an unacknowledged facsimile of the 1912 Oxford edition, but with Ernest de Selincourt's 41-page introduction replaced by Tim Cook's 4-1/2 page introduction.Cook does a good job in the space allotted (apart from repeatedly misspelling "The Shepheardes Calender" as "The Shepheardes Kalender"), but de Selincourt's essay, though dated, is still very much worth reading.So those considering this book should also consider its original version, which Oxford reprinted many, many times: "The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser," edited by Smith and de Selincourt.For those who DO want all The Works in one volume--the poetry AND the prose (or at least the long treatise on Ireland)--there is the 1869 Globe edition by R. Morris, also often reprinted; but Morris's text is less sound than Oxford's, to say nothing of more up-to-date editions in separate volumes.

Good reference book to have in your library
Tim Cook writes a brief, useful introduction to the works and provides a useful recommended reading list. He also includes a useful glossary in the back, since he maintains the original language of the text. It's handy to have all of Spenser's works in one text, and the binding holds up well, despite the thickness of the book. Unfortunately, however, the notes to the text and the glossary are both in the back, which makes it cumbersome to flip back and forth. ... Read more

Product Description
While The Faerie Queene is his masterpiece, Edmund Spenser showed his supreme versatility and skill as eulogist, satirist, pastoral poet, and prophet in his shorter poetry. This new edition demonstrates the point. Included in this volume are The Shepheardes Calender, twelve poems that mark a turning point in literary history, as the anonymous author confidently asserts his faith in the native vigor of the English language; the Amoretti and Hymnes, which reveal an acute sense of how erotic and even religious love are shot through with vanity and narcissism; Mother Hubberds Tale, an Elizabethan Animal Farm; and the Epithalamion, a rare celebration of consummated desire that is offset by far darker echoes. To assist readers with Spenser's many allusions to biblical, classical, and contemporary literature, Richard A. McCabe provides an insightful Introduction and detailed notes.

"Spenser is most commonly celebrated as the author of The Faerie Queene, yet had he written nothing other than the works collected in the present volume he would still rank amongst the foremost of English poets."--Richard A. McCabe, from the Introduction ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Stellar Notes for Students!
This book is especially helpful if you're using it in a university-level course. It has great notes in the back to aid students in understanding Spenser's use of language and the allegory that lies behind much of his writing. I have found it very helpful in my scrutinous study of Spenser. I highly recommend this edition of his shorter poems. :)

Don't just read his epic Faerie Queene
This book contains all of Spenser's important poems with the exception of the Faeie Quuene which Penguin also sells. This book is hefty at almost 900 pages, 500 of which are poems including his Shepherd Calendar. I rarely read introductions and notes but found them helpful in the case of Spenser who uses some words that are archaic, but his verse is actually very easy to get the gist of almost immediately. I found reading it aloud (much to the annoyance of my sleepy cat) helped.
AS my first introduction to Spenser I was concerned about just how difficult the poems would be to understand, but as I said his language is actually understandable and even add to the enjoyment. I was surprised how emotionally affecting the poems still are, how modern in their concerns about politics, love, life and death. I have underlined sections that I plan to revisit. I agree with the other reviwer that Spenser is a major poet who should be read by all. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

For those who can read Spenser and only them
This anthology was a last- ditch try for me. In graduate- school Spenser was of all the ' greats' of English Literature the one I found most impossible to read. The archaic language, the great froth in the descriptions, the very fineness and delicateness which all praised always bored me. I tried again with this anthology to see why so many others have read him with profit and joy, why he is the 'poet's poet'. Paul J.Alpers gives more than a small opportunity to do this. His anthology is really a history - text of Spenser criticism.It begins with a section on Contemporaneous Criticism has one on Neoclassical and Romantic Criticism, and closes with one on Modern Views. The great names of English literary criticism all have their say here. And to my mind the great value of the anthology is not necessarily what they say about Spenser but rather that we hear Milton, Coleridge, Hazlitt, Keats, Dr. Johnson, Pope , Dryden down to Northro p Frye , C.S. Lewis.
Yeats tells how many poets,when Spenser was buried in Westminster, read poems in his praise, and threw pens that had written them into the tomb. Soloved and admired was Spenser in his own age.
My tendency then is to feel that the fault in my not reading Spenser with pleasure is my own. This anthology provides all those who love this poet a real chance of understanding how and why so many others have done so. ... Read more

Product Description
In this accessible and rigorous introduction to Spenser, fourteen specially-commissioned essays provide all the essential information required to appreciate and understand Spenser's rewarding and challenging work. The Companion guides the reader through Spenser's poetry and prose, and provides extensive commentary on his life, the historical and religious context in which he wrote, his wide reading in Classical, European and English poetry, his sexual politics and use of language. A chronology and further reading lists make this volume indispensable for any student of Spenser. ... Read more

Product Description
It is said that his friend Harvey introduced him to that famous accomplished gentleman--that mirror of true knighthood--Sir Philip Sidney, and it would seem that Penshurst became for some time his home. There has already been quoted a line describing Spenser as 'the southern shepheardes boye.' This southern shepherd is probably Sidney. Sidney, it would seem, introduced him to his father and to his uncle, the Earl of Leicester. ... Read more

Product Description
The Faerie Queene from Hackett Publishing Company:

Spenser's great work in five volumes. Each includes its own Introduction, annotation, notes on the text, bibliography, glossary, and index of characters; Spenser's 'Letter to Raleigh' and a short Life of Edmund Spenser appear in every volume.

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Book One
Edited, with Introduction, by Carol Kaske, Cornell University

Book Two
Edited, with Introduction, by Erik Gray, Columbia University

Books Three and Four
Edited, with Introduction, by Dorothy Stephens, University of Arkansas

Book Five
Edited, with Introduction, by Abraham Stoll, University of San Diego

Book Six and the Mutabilitie Cantos
Edited, with Introduction, by Andrew Hadfield, University of Sussex

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Each volume may be purchased separately. For additional information on any of these volumes, please search for the individual title. ... Read more

Product Description
Eat this book. Devour it. Read it and then reread it. Make its characters and adventures and lessons and images a part of your mental furniture. Be enchanted. Feed your hunger for fantasy. Exercise your faith. Test your judgment. Form your imagination. Enter Faerie Land. Edmund Spenser (1559-99) has earned the title "the poet's poet" because of the high poetry of his epic and because so many great poets, including Milton, Dryden, Tennyson, and Keats, cut their poetic teeth on The Faerie Queene. The hero of Book II is Sir Guyon, the knight of Temperance. But do not let that throw you. This is not a poem about teetotalism. As C.S. Lewis puts it, The Faerie Queene "demands of us a child's love of marvels and dread of bogies, a boy's thirst for adventures, a young man's passions for physical beauty." Following in the wake of Roy Maynard's Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves, Toby J. Sumpter's notes are insightful and humorous-making this great Christian epic poem accessible for modern readers. The Elfin Knight makes an excellent choice as a homeschool or classroom text.-Jayson Grieser, PhD, Fellow of Humanities, New Saint Andrews College Toby J. Sumpter (MA, Erskine Theological Seminary) is co-pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow, Idaho. Sumpter also writes for the online journal, Credenda/Agenda and can be found regularly at havingtwolegs.blogspot.com. He and his wife Jenny and their three children live in Moscow. ... Read more

Product Description
The first comprehensive collection of the shorter poems since the Variorum minor poems of the 40s. Cloth edition ($55.)not seen by R&R. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The definitive version for the serious academic student
If you are in any way responsible academically for Spenser's shorter works, this is the book.Editing, of course, refers to how the text of the poems is managed with regard to conflicts in early editions, etc.Here, decisions on text are made consistently and all changes vs. early texts are listed in the Appendices.Also useful, even though it's now more than 12 years out of date, is the annotated bibliography, which provides a good starting point for additional literary research.

marred by overediting
This book would normally get a "10" for providing us with the shorter poems of Edmund Spenser, but it is marred by overediting.The collective ego of Yale comes through on almost every page.I can see one footnote that begins, "There is irony here."I ask, is there any poem without irony?Why point it out?A footnote should be providing the student with factual information, references to allusions, etc., and not providing interpretation.So, buy the book; Spenser is so great a poet that philosophy textbooks sometimes devote pages to him; but ignore the editing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Excellent Scholarly Source
As I understand it, this book results from years of scholarship;certainly it's the most detailed edition of the Amoretti and Epithalamion that I've found.

Larsen has a clear editorial "take" on Spenser's sonnet cycle (which includes the 89 Amoretti and the 24 stanzas of the Epithalamion).He joins the many historicist Renaissance scholars who argue that one cannot understand Renaissance literature fully without taking its religious and political context into account.In particular, Spenser, like most of Elizabeth I's subjects, was steeped the the new Protestant religion begun by the queen's father and brother in the middle of the 16th century, and this religion, in turn, found its life in the 1559 Book of Common Prayer.

Building on the work of Alexander Dunlop and others, Larson pays particular attention to the resonances between the Amoretti and the lessons and psalms specified for particular days of the year in the Prayer Book.Most critics agree that almost all of Spenser's 89 Amoretti correspond to specific days in the calendar year 1594.Larsen supports this theory by noting many connections between specific sonnets and the Prayer Book readings which correspond to those sonnets' presumed dates.His introduction (some 60 pages) offers an especially helpful discussion of how Spenser may have read and used the Prayer Book and various English translations of the Bible.

Larsen also notes Spenser's numerous classical and Petrarchan sources.My only complaint here is that in his notes Larsen will often quote a source in the original language without providing a translation.Over all, though, Larsen's notes are extensive and provocative without shutting down further inquiry or discussion.I'd recommend this work to anyone who's doing a serious investigation of the Amoretti and Epithalamion. ... Read more

Product Description
First in a series of Spenser's great work in five volumes. Each includes its own Introduction, annotation, notes on the text, bibliography, glossary, and index of characters; Spenser's "Letter to Raleigh" and a short Life of Edmund Spenser appear in every volume.Framed in Spenser's distinctive, opulent stanza and in some of the trappings of epic, Book One of Spenser's The Faerie Queene consists of a chivalric romance that has been made to a typical recipe—"fierce warres and faithfull loves"—but that has been Christianized in both overt and subtle ways. The physical and moral wanderings of the Redcrosse Knight dramatize his effort to find the proper proportion of human to divine contributions to salvation—a key issue between Protestants and Catholics. Fantastic elements like alien humans, humanoids, and monsters and their respective dwelling places are vividly described. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A great way to introduce yourself to the Faerie Queene
While nearly all Spenser scholars will point you to the Longman edition for the best edition of the FAERIE QUEENE (even the editors of this edition), what makes this book (and the subsequent edition for each individual book) worth while is that it comes with a Book specific introduction, and is easy to carry around, along with copious notes--not overdone, though, just enough for good understanding of Spenser's complex allegory.But making the FAERIE QUEENE portable and easier to take with you and understand is what makes me recommend this edition.The poem itself is a testament to imaginative poetry, and a must read for serious students of Literature or the Elizabethan era. ... Read more

Product Description
"A balanced, coherent reading that is both enlightening and full of delight." —Choice"My hope has been to provide students (and teachers) of Spenser's epic with ways of approaching the poem. The first part of the book is concerned with contexts—the life of Spenser, some forms the epic took before (and after) his own, the pervasiveness of certain literary figures (like Chaucer) and figures from literature (like Arthur) during his time. In discussing these topics, I have also tried to place Spenser's text itself. The chapter on overall structure, where others have preceded me, is intended to fasten on the whole poem. The next, on Pageantry, is my own foray into the subject and strategems of Allegory, though I have chosen to speak of Allegory in terms the poem (and not simply the Letter to Raleigh) constantly employs. This chapter and the last three then focus on the 'play of double senses' (a text derived from Book III, canto iv, stanza 28) as I see it working in specific ways in the epic, thus suggesting how Spenser participates in the epic tradition that I sketched in Chapter II." —from the Preface ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

helpful to FQ lovers
Of all the critical works I could find on the FQ, whether on Amazon or in the huge library system in my county, this ranked among the best.It is simple, well argued and worthwhile.Weird - the author was commissioner of baseball. ... Read more

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The book may have numerous typos or missing text. It is not illustrated or indexed. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website. You can also preview the book there.Purchasers are also entitled to a trial membership in the publisher's book club where they can select from more than a million books for free.Original Publisher: Little Publication date: 1842Subjects: History / United States / General; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / Poetry; Poetry / General; Poetry / American / General; Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh ... Read more

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