Description: Edmund Spenser's innovative poetic works have a central place in the canon of English literature. Yet he is remembered as a morally flawed, self-interested sycophant; in Karl Marx's words, 'Elizabeth's arse-kissing poet'. In this vibrant and vivid biography -- the first for 60 years -- Andrew Hadfield finds a more complex and subtle Spenser.
Review Quotes:
"Hadfield's Spenser is revelatory and performed with authentic scholarship and drive." --Harold Bloom
"Even the most serious readers will learn more than they might imagine about a colorful, seminal era." --Publishers Weekly--- Best new Books
" Andrew Hadfield displays a rare understanding of the poet's ambiguous legacy, of his relationship to history and then to art. Mr. Hadfield makes no simple judgments about the connection or disconnection between beauty and cruelty, but he offers a nuanced and clever reading of the work and the man that made the work." Colm Toibin, Books of the Year, Wall Street Journal
. Hadfield's thorough analysis of the self-referential elements in Spenser's writings makes this a book that those studying Spenser will want to consult frequently. The impressive apparatus includes 2,535 endnotes, a 64-page bibliography, 47 plates, and appendixes on Spenser's descendants, portraits, and previous biographies. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. CHOICE
"His book will be the new standard scholarly biography of Spenser, and is essential for literary scholarship of the era." --Library Journal
"A book that those studying Spenser will want to consult frequently...Essential." --Choice
"[Hadfield] has created a lasting and colorful portrait of one of England's (and Ireland's greatest writers." --Renaissance Quarterly