EDMUND SPENSER (1552-1599) was an English poet recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of modern English verse in its infancy, and considered one of the greatest poets in the English language.

THE FAERIE QUEENE, his most famous work, is an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I.  Each book of the poem recounts the quest of a knight to achieve a virtue: the Red Crosse Knight of Holinesse, who must slay a dragon and free himself from the witch Duessa; Sir Guyon, Knight of Temperance, who escapes the Cave of Mammon and destroys Acrasia’s Bowre of Bliss; and the lady-knight Britomart's search for her Sir Artegall, revealed to her in an enchanted mirror.  Although composed as a moral and political allegory, the poem's magical atmosphere captivated the imaginations of later poets from Milton to the Victorians.

Also included in this collection are Spenser's shorter poems which reveal his generic and stylistic versatility, his remarkable linguistic skill and his mastery of complex metrical forms.  They demonstrate the variety and conflicting personae he adopted: satirist and eulogist, elegist and lover, polemicist and prophet.


The following books are in PDF format unless otherwise noted:

* AMORETTI AND EPITHALAMION: A Critical Edition (MRTS, 1997).  Edited by Kenneth J. Larsen.

* THE FAERIE QUEEN (Penguin Classics, 1978).  Edited by Thomas P. Roche Jr. and C. Patrick O'Donnell. -- ePUB

* THE FAERIE QUEEN: Book I (Hackett, 2006).  Edited with an Introduction by Carol V. Kaske.

* THE FAERIE QUEEN: Book II (Hackett, 2006).  Edited with an Introduction by Erik Gray.

* THE FAERIE QUEEN: Books  III-IV (Hackett, 2006).  Edited with an Introduction by Dorothy Stephens.

* THE FAERIE QUEEN: Book V (Hackett, 2006).  Edited with an Introduction by Abraham Stoll.

* THE FAERIE QUEEN: Book VI and The Mutabilitie Cantos (Hackett, 2007).  Edited by Andrew Hadfield and Abraham Stoll with an Introduction by Andrew Hadfield.

* THE SHORTER POEMS (Penguin Classics, 1999).  Edited by Richard A. McCabe. -- ePUB

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