The Faerie Queene (Magill Book Reviews)
At a glance:
- Author: Edmund Spenser
- First Published: 1590
- Type of Work: Epic Poetry
- Genres: Poetry, Allegory, Epic, Narrative poetry
- Subjects: Mythical animals, Sin or Original sin, Religion, Christianity, Good and evil, Kings, queens, or royalty, Ethics, Allegory, Dragons, Knights or knighthood, Chivalry, Fairies, Chastity
- Locales: England
In a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, Spenser stated that his purpose in this epic poem was to “fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline.” Although Spenser may have intended to write twenty-four books, twelve concerned with private and twelve with public or political virtues, he completed only six books and The Mutabilitie Cantos, a fragment of a possible seventh book.
Spenser’s first book focuses on the virtue of holiness and relates the story of Redcross Knight, also St. George of England, who hopes to liberate the parents of Una...
[The entire page is 563 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
