The Faerie Queene. Book 1: Bk. 1

by Edmund Spenser (Author), P. C. Bayley (Editor)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1970

  $3.23

  Book 1 presents a powerful allegory of the trials of good against evil. The Red Cross Knight with his companion, Una, sets out on a quest to rid the land of the dragon. The Knight is to become Saint George, and his betrothal to Una signifies the union of the newly established Church with the faithful. But, Spencer's tale moves beyond the allegory, reflecting his experience of human frailty in an imaginative romantic narrative that draws on the quest plots of medieval literature and Italian romances. His unique diction with its newly-coined words and rich description adds to the antique flavour of The Legende of the Knight of the Red Crosse .

• Used

  Paperback
  1975

  $3.23

• New

  Paperback
  2003

  $20.77

  The Faerie Queene was the first epic in English and one of the most influential poems in the language for later poets from Milton to Tennyson. Dedicating his work to Elizabeth I, Spenser brilliantly united medieval romance and renaissance epic to expound the glory of the Virgin Queen. The poem recounts the quests of knights including Sir Guyon, Knight of Constance, who resists temptation, and Artegall, Knight of Justice, whose story alludes to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Composed as an overt moral and political allegory, The Faerie Queene , with its dramatic episodes of chivalry, pageantry and courtly love, is also a supreme work of atmosphere, colour and sensuous description.