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Cover of The Faerie Queene — Volume 01

The Faerie Queene — Volume 01

by Edmund Spenser (1551–1599)

  • Free to read
  • 30 hours to read
  • 42 chapters
  • Reading level: 10th to 12th grade

"The Faerie Queene — Volume 01" by Edmund Spenser is an epic poem first published in 1590. This monumental allegorical work follows knights on quests to embody different virtues—Holiness, Temperance, and Chastity. Each knight faces temptations, enchantments, and monsters while pursuing their noble purposes. Written to praise Queen Elizabeth I and "fashion a gentleman" in virtuous discipline, the poem weaves together romance, adventure, and moral allegory across thousands of stanzas, creating one of the longest and most ambitious works in English literature.

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  • English poetry · Early modern, 1500-1700
  • Knights and knighthood
  • Virtues

Read the opening

Canto xii, Stanzas 43-7 (from the 1590 edition): [5]

(Numbers in square brackets show the number of stanzas in each canto)

=> INTRODUCTORY MATTER:

FAERY > (An archaic variant of "fairy", used by Spenser to denote the
imaginary land, analogous to Britain, where his poem is set)

3 QUEEN
4
5 _Disposed into twelve books,
6 fashioning

fashioning > representing, exemplifying

Keep reading The Faerie Queene — Volume 01 →

Contents

Show all 42 chapters
  1. Front Matter
  2. Canto xii, Stanzas 43-7 (from the 1590 edition): [5]
  3. Canto I
  4. Canto II
  5. Canto III
  6. Canto Iiii
  7. Canto V
  8. Canto VI
  9. Canto VII
  10. Canto VIII
  11. Canto IX
  12. Canto X
  13. Canto XI
  14. Canto XII
  15. Canto I
  16. Canto II
  17. Canto III
  18. Canto IV
  19. Canto V
  20. Canto VI
  21. Canto VII
  22. Canto VIII
  23. Canto IX
  24. Canto X
  25. Canto XI
  26. Canto XII
  27. Canto I
  28. Canto II
  29. Canto III
  30. Canto IV
  31. Canto V
  32. Canto VI
  33. Canto VII
  34. Canto VIII
  35. Canto IX
  36. Canto X
  37. Canto XI
  38. Canto XII
  39. Chapter I: 1552-1579
  40. Chapter II: 1580-1589
  41. Chapter III: 1590
  42. Chapter IV: 1591-1599

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About this edition

This free edition of The Faerie Queene — Volume 01 by Edmund Spenser comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #6930, released 2004-11-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Poetry, Mythology, Legends & Folklore, Classics of Literature, British Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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