My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves(Spensers Faerie Queen, #1)
"Despite all of his acknowledged greatness, almost no one reads Spenser any more. Roy Maynard takes the first book of The Faerie Queene, exploring the concept of Holiness with the character of the Redcross Knight, and makes Spenser accessible again. He does this not by dumbing it down, but by deftly modernizing the spelling, explaining the obscurities in clever asides...more
Paperback, 236 pages
Published
January 1st 1999
by Canon Press
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
101)
For summer book club we are reading books 1 and 2 from "The Faerie Queene" by Edmund Spenser. Roy Maynard has taken the first book of FQ and made it more accessible through more modern spelling and hilarious commentary. Already I am enjoying the book and beginning to understand why FQ is so wonderful and important.
Many many kudos to Mr. Maynard for providing the exceptional foundation for reading FQ. I would have had a much more difficult time if not for this book. I wi...more
Many many kudos to Mr. Maynard for providing the exceptional foundation for reading FQ. I would have had a much more difficult time if not for this book. I wi...more
view all 4 comments
Spenser takes you on a delightfully imaginative journey through Fairie Lond with wonderful personifications of virtues like Holiness and Truth. Rereading just reveals more and more layers of meaning and nuggets of truth to ponder. Roy Maynard does a great job of making the archaic language understandable while keeping the true essence of the original completely intact. If you’re not completely comfortable with 14th century Middle English verse, then this is a great introduction – Maynard has on...more
The Faerie Queen is a beautiful story and worth the read in any version. But Roy Maynard's adaptation is amazing. His explanations of terminology and cultural/historical references are brilliant and fill in many of the pieces modern American readers often miss in reading Spenser's work. In addition to being helpful, Maynard's footnotes are entertaining. It's worth reading this version for the footnotes alone.
Iris
rated it
Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves offers Book One of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene with an abundance of definitions and fun footnotes. It tells the story of faithful Una and her knight, George of the Red Cross. George is going with Una to defeat the dragon that is terrorizing her parents' kingdom but along the way he faces many other trials. Edmund Spenser wrote this first book as an allegory for holiness, but it makes an interesting story as well.
This is a book that I will read over and over. I appreciated all the notes Mr. Maynard provided to make the Faerie Queen live for me. (Yes, I do need all the help I can get in this area!)
Knights-errant and a moral. Translated/edited for high schoolers, so it's accessible too.
I was glad I read Hamlet before The Faire Queene. Shakespeare was basically Spenser’s training wheels. After Spenser’s prose where all the parts of speech play musical spots and three characters are left fighting over the same verb (which might not even exist), Shakespeare felt like Dr. Seuss.
Nice edition
Now to read the remaining Books in the Penguin edition
Now to read the remaining Books in the Penguin edition
This is an amazing book! It didn't take me long to see why C.S. Lewis loved this book so much and notice the parallels between his works and this book.
Yay! I finally finished this book! It took me a while...but I made it. I enjoyed it, but I feel like I didn't even begin to scratch the surface of all it has to say. Alas. I don't have the time right now to go back and dig deeper, but hopefully someday.
This book is taking me a while to get through, but is very rewarding. Reading it aloud helps and Roy's translation get you through the rough spots. I'm hopeful that the rest of Spenser's Faerie Queen books will be published in a similar format.
Angel
marked it as to-read
Grace D.
is currently reading it
Melissa
added it
Noël DeVries
marked it as to-read
Deb C
marked it as to-read
Rodney Ulyate
marked it as to-read
Kristin
marked it as to-read
Fergie
marked it as to-read
Fred Putnam
added it
Jeanie
added it
Sarah
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Aye me, how many perils do enfold
The righteous man, to make him daily fall?
Were not, that heavenly grace doth him uphold,
And steadfast truth acquite him out of all.”
—
2 people liked it
More quotes…
The righteous man, to make him daily fall?
Were not, that heavenly grace doth him uphold,
And steadfast truth acquite him out of all.”
