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Title: The Faerie Queene (Penguin Classics) by Edmund Spenser, Thomas P. Roche, C. P. O'Connell ISBN: 0-14-042207-2 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: July, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (26 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Deliciously problematic, rich, and well-crafted.
Comment: The Faerie Queene, I suggest, is the pinnacle of literature in the English language before Shakespeare. Originally envisioned as a twelve book epic, written in language that was deliberately antiquated even for the period, I find it surprisingly modern in several ways. First, the characters are abstract exercises, deliberate embodiments of ideals and concepts. The term 'allegory' is now almost uniquely used to describe this Spenserian technique, and its adoption by later authors. Allegory is metaphor to the Nth degree. Spenser also invented his own, idiosyncratic stanza form and rhyme scheme, a nine line block which he uses throughout (and which is likewise known as the Spenserian stanza). Given these characteristics, The Faerie Queene may be most enjoyed by those who can appreciate its abstract craftsmanship. Nonetheless, there is something in it for every serious reader, as the subjects and plots are deeply archetypal--the saga of Book I's Redcrosse Knight is practically a case-study for one of the thousand faces of Joseph Campbell's hero. The language is rich, and its implications complex--for instance it is unclear what we are to conclude when Guyon, the supposed knight of temperance and moderation razes the Bowre of Blis after nearly succumbing to its charms. Above all, it can be deeply entertaining, moreso I feel than most of Shakespeare's histories, Falkner's Sound and the Fury, or just about anything written in the 18th century.
Rating: 5
Summary: Spenser's Enchanted Universe.
Comment: THE FAERIE QUEENE. By Edmund Spenser. Edited by Thomas P. Roche, Jr with the assistance of C. Patrick O'Donnell, Jr. 1247 pp. Penguin English Poets, 1978 and Reprinted.
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 basically a 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 whole new 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, Spenser created his own special brand of English. Basically his language is standard Sixteenth Century English, but with antique spellings and a few medievalisms thrown in, along with a number of new words that Spenser coined himself. The opening lines of the poem are typical :
"A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plain, / Y cladd in mightie armes and siluer shielde, / Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remain, / 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, silver, 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 them, an explanation is provided in the useful list of Common Words at the back of the book.
Once you've used that 2-page list 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 you will often want to return to.
The Penguin edition, although it contains the complete text of 'The Faerie Queene,' is significantly without an Introduction, presumably because the editors felt that we don't really need one. The book does, however, contain stanza-by-stanza Notes. These have been placed at the end where they can be referred to at need, and where they don't interfere with the flow of the story as we experience it.
There have been many editions of 'The Faerie Queene.' Students who are studying the poem formally will want to have the fully annotated edition by A. C. Hamilton, a bulky edition with extensive and detailed notes, but in which the actual text of the poem is not so easy to read, being a rather poor and considerably reduced copy of the 3-volume Clarendon Press edition.
The Penguin has always seemed to me to be the best available edition for the general reader. As is usual with Penguins, it has a clear and well-printed text, and the Notes are just about right, being neither skimpy nor excessive. Though fat, it's not too big to carry around, and you may just find yourself taking it along with you on your next trip.
Spenser is one of England's very greatest writers. And he was writing, not for critics, but 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 book that 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 if you hit a strange-looking word, don't fret or panic. Try to hear the word in your mind, and guess at its meaning. That will often help, but if it doesn't, Roche's list or his brief and excellent notes should.
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 find yourself.
Rating: 4
Summary: I've had/enjoyed a written copy for a long long time
Comment: It is a classic truism: until you get it in writing, you have nothing. This work of art is a classic you too can get in writing. And it's quite enjoyable. Beware though! If you read the Faerie Queene in its entirety, you will probably cripple your ability to converse in normal english for quite some time.
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Title: Orlando Furioso (Oxford World's Classics) by Ludovico Ariosto, Guido Waldman ISBN: 0192836773 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Faerie Queene: A Reader's Guide by Elizabeth Heale ISBN: 0521654688 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 28 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Sir Philip Sidney: The Major Works by Philip Sidney, Katherine Duncan-Jones ISBN: 0192840800 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Jerusalem Delivered: Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso, Anthony M. Esolen ISBN: 0801863236 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Paradise Lost: An Authoritative Text Backgrounds and Sources Criticism (NORTON CRITICAL EDITIONS) by John Milton, Scott Elledge ISBN: 0393962938 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.20 |
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