Edmund Spenser: A Life - Hardcover

Hadfield, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199591024 ISBN 13: 9780199591022

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2012

Synopsis

Edmund Spenser 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. Full description

About this title

Review

Hadfield's breadth of reading and his coverage of relevant details are impressive. ... will undoubtedly become the authoritative biography of Spenser (Elizabeth Heale, Modern Language Review)

readers will find much to enjoy in this story of a path-breaking, independent-minded writer, whose network of associates included most f the important literary and political figures in the last quarter of the 16th century. (Neil Rhodes, Around the Globe)

this is going to be the standard biography of Spenser for a very long time ... If I encounter a better historical biography this year, I'll be surprised. (Jonathan Wright, The Tablet)

This tremendous book represents nothing less than tha most comprehensive account of Edmund Spencer's life that we have ever had. (Christianity and Literature)

Hadfield's Spenser is revelatory and performed with authentic scholarship and drive. (Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University)

Andrew Hadfield has created ... an invaluable biography, which will be a resource for Spenserian scholars and enthusiasts for generations to come. (Helen Hackett, Times Literary Supplement)

This is, in all senses, a substantial book, packed with scholarly detail. (Charles Nicholl, The Guardian)

Andrew Hadfield's monumental undertaking sets new standards in life writing. Not merely a significant contribution to Spenser studies, it changes the way we think about Renaissance literature, Elizabethan history, biographical criticism and issues of authorship. (Times Higher Education)

A phenomenal work of scholarship and insight. (Nicola Shulman, The Spectator)

Andrew Hadfield's life of Spenser is the first biography of the Prince of Poets, as his epitaph had it, in 60 years, and I cannot imagine anyone doing a better job for another 60 ... He brings to the biography a nuanced critical intelligence, and above all, a capacity to remind the reader how surprising Spenser was. (Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman)

About the Author

Andrew Hadfield is Professor of English at the University of Sussex and Visiting Professor at the University of Grenada. He is author of a number of works on early modern literature.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0199591024
• ISBN 13: 9780199591022
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 672