Spencer's Art

A Companion to Book One of <i>The Faerie Queen</i>

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I have tried to suggest something of Spenser's richness and subtlety through a reading of Book One, following the poem as it develops canto by canto. In general, I have attempted to draw the meaning out of the text, emphasizing that the poem creates its own world of allusion, becoming increasingly suggestive as it proceeds. There are many aspects of the poem, important aspects such as the historical allegory, that I have ignored or slighted. My intention has not been to provide a complete study of Book One, but merely to indicate to the reader who does not come to Spenser equipped with special expertise how much he may gain through a study of the text itself. On the assumption that most readers will find a short book more useful than a longer one, I have tried to keep my discussions as brief as possible. Necessarily this has meant being selective about which passages and details to comment upon, and in a poem such as The Faerie Queene in which every detail is significant any selection is to some degree a distortion of the text. The reader should recognize this at the outset, realizing that another critic's choices of passages for emphasis might be quite different from my own. - Preface.

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