The Structure of Allegory in The Faerie Queene

by A.C. Hamilton

VERY GOOD-BOOK/VERY GOOD-DUST JACKET. Hardcover. Book is NOT SIGNED OR AUTOGRAPHED. Dust jacket has minor shelf, rubbing and light edge wear. Book is In very good, unread, or lightly read condition, text is unmarked, not price clipped, not library copy and, not remainder marked, previous owners impression on FFEP. Dust jacket has minor shelf, rubbing and light edge wear and is not price clipped but is abraded at heel of spine. Seller is a lifelong book collector and each edition comes directly from his 35,000+ volume collection! Orders are shipped every business day using USPS Media Mail, WITH FREE TRACKING, for all U S. orders. Thank You! DEZ 4113 B

227 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1961

Reviews

[Joseph Leake]

I'm a novice to the labyrinthine world of The Faerie Queene and its scholarship, so I found this book beneficial both when I agreed with the interpretations and when I disagreed with them (since even in the latter instances, I was at least gaining insights into the historiography of the text).

But of course, best of all were the times when the author -- to the best of my ability to judge -- illuminated Spenser's great work itself: the times when Hamilton sent me back to the text itself, leaving me excited to read it (and teach it) again. I found it often insightful.

Hamilton's writing is often smart and a pleasure to read, e.g., "As Christians we are meant to respond to Satan's magnificence [in Milton's Paradise Lost] and Acrasia's beauty [in the FQ] with the cry: 'lead us not into temptation'." At other times he is definitely too clever by half, as for example when he refers to Spenser's "dolphin-like" play with words (what on earth is that supposed to convey?), and then proceeds to describe Spenser's love of language as "this primitive and sophisticated pleasure." (Very cute.)