Biography

Waller, Gary. Edmund Spenser: A Literary Life. New York: Macmillan, 1994, 211 p.

Biographical study of Spenser, with an emphasis on the professional and social contexts which shaped his writing.

Criticism

Alpers, Paul J. The Poetry of "The Faerie Queene." Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1982, 415 p.

An introductory analysis of The Faerie Queene.

Bednarz, James P. "Ralegh in Spenser's Historical Allegory." Spenser Studies IV (1983): 49-70.

Analysis of the allegorical representation of the relationship between Spenser's friend Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth in The Faerie Queene.

Berger, Harry, Jr., ed. Spenser: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968, 182 p.

Collection of ten seminal essays on Spenser divided into two sections: the minor poems and The Faerie Queene.

Colie, Rosalie L. Paradoxia Epidemica: The Renaissance Tradition of Paradox. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966, 553 p.

Discusses Spenser's use of allegory in The Faerie Queene and argues for a less tidy scheme than has traditionally been suggested.

Cook, Patrick J. Milton, Spenser, and the Epic Tradition. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996, 201 p.

Comparative study of the epic, from the classical tradition to Milton, with an emphasis on Spenser and Milton.

Curran, John E., Jr. "Spenser and the Historical Revolution: Briton Moniments and the Problem of Roman Britain." Clio 25, No. 3 (Spring 1996): 273-92.

Argues that Spenser understood the profound changes historiography was undergoing in the sixteenth century and reflected this knowledge in the "Briton Moniments" section of The Faerie Queene.

Durling, Robert M. The Figure of the Poet in Renaissance Epic. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965, 280 p.

A survey study of Renaissance representations of the poet, beginning with ancient and medieval influences and culminating with Spenser.

Frushell, Richard C, ed. Contemporary Thought on Edmund Spenser. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1975, 240 p.

A collection of essays focusing on twentieth-century criticism of Spenser's work. Includes a bibliography of criticism from 1900 to 1970.

Giamatti, A. Bartlett. The Earthly Paradise and the Renaissance Epic. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966, 374 p.

Chapter on Spenser discusses the influence of earlier epic on Spenser's treatment of earthly paradise and the ways in which the poet uses, deviates from, and molds the ideas he found there to suit his artistic purposes.

——. "A Prince and Her Poet." In The Yale Review 73, No. 3 (April. 1984): 321-37.

Discusses Elizabeth, Spenser, his poem to her, and the politics of the Elizabethan court.

Goldberg, Jonathan. Endlesse Worke: Spenser and the Structures of Discourse. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981, 177 p.

Discusses the idea of artistic (and emotional) closure as it pertains to Spenser's style.

Hamilton, A.C. The Structure of Allegory in "The Faerie Queene." Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1961, 227 p.

Overview of the allegorical structures of Spenser's poem.

Helgerson, Richard. "The New Poet Presents Himself." In Self-Crowned Laureates, pp. 55-101. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.

Analyzes Spenser's reputation and his attitudes toward his career as represented in his poetry.

Henniger, S.K. Jr. Sidney and Spenser: The Poet as Maker. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1989, 646 p.

Argues that Spenser and Sidney led a transformation in narrative strategies that marked a return to the Aristotelian idea of imitation as the purpose of poetry.

Lewis, C. S. Spenser's Images of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967, 143 p.

Readable study of the iconography of The Faerie Queene with an emphasis on the historical and cultural contexts for Spenser's imagery.

Maccaffrey, Isabel G. Spenser's Allegory: The Anatomy of Imagination. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976, 445 p.

Orderly assessment of The Faerie Queene which argues that Spenser's thematic purpose was to explore ways of knowing available to human beings and to define the possibilities of moral action.

Nelson, William, ed. Form and Convention in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser: Selected Papers from the English Institute. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, 188 p.

Collection of six critical essays on Spenser, including several on the "Epithalamion" and the "Pro-thalamion."

Radcliffe, David Hill. Edmund Spenser: A Reception History. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1996, 239 p.

A survey and analysis of Spenserian criticism from his own time to the present day.

Roche, Thomas P., Jr. The Kindly Flame: A Study of the Third and Fourth Books of Spenser's "The Faerie Queene. " Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964, 220 P.

Detailed readings explaining the third and fourth books of Spenser's epic, which are often held to be exceedingly complex or incoherent. Argues that the more complex structure of those books is required to exemplify the virtues of chastity and friendship.

Schleiner, Louise. Cultural Semiotics, Spenser, and the Captive Woman. Bethlehem, Penn.: Lehigh University Press, 1995, 278 p.

Draws on the work of Frederic Jameson and A.-J. Greimas for a semiotic analysis of the conflicts between classes and factions in Spenser's poetry. The emphasis is on relations between male and female.

Steadman, John M. Moral Fiction in Milton and Spenser. Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1995, 200 p.

A comparative study of the epics of Spenser and Milton, focusing on the relationship between moral vision and the poet's persona and poetic structures used in each.

Suzuki, Mihoko, ed. Critical Essays on Edmund Spenser. New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1996, 282 p.

Collection of recent critical essays bringing innovative theoretical approaches to Spenser. Focuses on The Faerie Queene and Shepheardes Calender.

Watkins, John. The Specter of Dido: Spenser and Virgilian Epic. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995, 208 p.

Studies Spenser's use of Virgilian conventions in The Faerie Queene, focusing on portrayals of seductive women.

Welsford, Enid. Spenser, Fowre Hymns, Epithalamion: A Study of Edmund Spenser's Doctrine of Love. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1967, 215 p.

Introduction and analysis to the theme of love in Spenser's love poems, with historical context and reprints of the poems.

Williams, Kathleen. Spenser's World of Glass: A Reading of "The Faerie Queene." Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966, 241 p.

Overview analysis of The Faerie Queene with detailed examination of important passages and critical themes.

Woodhouse, A. S. P. The Poet and His Faith: Religion and Poetry in England from Spenser to Eliot and Auden. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965, 304 p.

Survey of the influence of religious beliefs on the work of English poets, with a chapter on Spenser and Elizabethan England.

Additional coverage of Spenser's life and career is contained in the following source published by Gale Research: Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Vol. 5.