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chicana99's review against another edition
2.0
Gorgeous fantasy you can (almost) imagine any way you want. I loved the prose patterns and the complexity of each paragraph, how they spiderwebbed between lore and fantasies. Images of demons, fairies, and souls in the river, really blew me away. I did not enjoy the eulogising of the queen or the undercurrent of godliness/goodness; I am not sure if I took any temperaments out of this. I found the writing of the lady characters in this book quite one-dimensional; through the leering point of view of the writer. Definitely an okay leisure read. Not a keeper of the book, yet it'd be fun to try and write in this faux-old style.
maenad_wordsmith's review
Guyon (Temperance) and his Palmer (who tells Guyon what temperance is) are often boring, but the House of Temperance and Prince Arthur are stunning and many of the temptations are beautiful. I love Spenser's interjections--he invokes and praises Queen Elizabeth ("To decke my song withall, I would assay / Thy name, O Soveraine Queene, to blazon farre away") and seems to admit Guyon is a bit dull ("here I a while must stay / to see a cruell fight doen by the Prince this day" he says before devoting Canto 11 to Arthur). One of my favorite stanzas is about Arthur's quest for Gloriana, which brings him to each of Spenser's books:
Certes (then said the Prince) I God avow,
That sith I armes and knighthood first did plight,
My whole desire hath beene, and yet is now,
To serve that Queene with all my power and might.
Now hath the Sunne with his lamp-burning light,
Walkt round about the world, and I no less,
Sith of that Goddess I have sought the sight,
Yet no where can her find; such happiness
Heaven doth to me envy, and fortune favour lesse.
Certes (then said the Prince) I God avow,
That sith I armes and knighthood first did plight,
My whole desire hath beene, and yet is now,
To serve that Queene with all my power and might.
Now hath the Sunne with his lamp-burning light,
Walkt round about the world, and I no less,
Sith of that Goddess I have sought the sight,
Yet no where can her find; such happiness
Heaven doth to me envy, and fortune favour lesse.
lyg004's review
i need to read this for uni but literally do not have the mental capacity for it rn so i’ll just have to rely on litcharts summaries <3
tquinton's review
i don’t have a clue what happened- hopefully the lecture will clear that up🙏
sincere_mammoth's review
5.0
In many ways this book is vastly different than Book One yet it is still very good. I found this one easier to read than the first book, but it's truly enjoyable if you understand the context of England at the time - religiously, and also what Spenser is trying to do for the English novel and literary art form. Whereas Book 1 focuses on the grandness of a Knight and becoming a powerful Man of God, Book 2 is all about the power one should have over their own bodies and urges - all in all a very interesting read, especially compared to the first one.
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