The Faerie Queene (Penguin Classics)

As one of the most influential epic poems in the English language, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene marks itself as the central poem of the Elizabethan period. With married chastity as its central value, and King Arthur as hero, Spenser fuses medieval allegory with the Italian romantic epic. The language captures the sensuality of its period, as Renaissance philosophy is rendered in these brilliant tales that focus on the quests of 12 knights, proving to exemplify the 12 virtues and a portrayal of the moral life. The Faerie Queene is one of the great classics of Renaissance literature, as its rhythmical music and rhetorical power have delighted readers for centuries. 1,245 pages.