Edmund Spenser (Longman Critical Readers) - Softcover

Hadfield, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0582247365 ISBN 13: 9780582247369

Publisher: Routledge, 1996

Synopsis

This collection represents some of the best recent critical writing on Edmund Spenser, a major Renaissance English poet. The essays cover the whole of Spensers work, from early literary experiments such as The Shepeardes Calendar, to his unfinished crowning work,The Fairie Queene. The introduction provides an overview of critical responses to Spenser, setting his work and the debates which it has generated in their perspective contexts: new historicist, post-structural, psychoanalytic and feminist. His study also covers the critical responses of leading British, Irish and American scholars.

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)

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)

This definitive portrait brings fresh life to a magnificent but maligned poet ... a model biography. ( Jerry Brotton, The Independent)

Andrew Hadfield's Spenser is a remarkable piece of work ... It is difficult to imagine a more exhaustive examination of a poet's life. ( Harold Weatherby, Sewanee Review)

Edmund Spenser: A Life by 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, The Wall Street Journal, Best books of 2012)

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. ( B. E. Brandt, Choice)

Andrew Hadfield's biography takes Spenser scholarship and criticism to a new level. ( Gordon Teskey, The Spenser Review)

feast on it alone and with friends and feed it to your students. ( J.B. Lethbridge, Shakespeare Jahrbuch)

From the Back Cover

This collection represents some of the best recent critical writing on Edmund Spenser, a major Renaissance English poet who has helped to inspire some of the most vigorous critical movements within recent English studies. The essays cover the whole range of Spenser's work, from his early literary experiments such as the 'Shepheardes Calendar', to his unfinished crowning work, 'The Faerie Queene', and his controversial treatise, 'A View Of The Present State Of Ireland.'|

Back cover
General Editor: Stan Smith
Professor of English, University of Dundee
This important series takes full account of contemporary literary theory, providing collections of key modern readings of major authors, genres and critical approaches. Prefaced by a wide-ranging editorial introduction setting the readings in context and exploring the issues they raise, individual volumes in the series offer the student authoritative and stimulating guides to the best theoretically-informed critical work on subjects from Chaucer to the present.
This collection represents some of the best recent critical writing on Edmund Spenser, a major Renaissance English poet who has helped to inspire some of the most vigorous critical movements within recent English studies. The essays cover the whole range of Spenser's work, from his early literary experiments such as the Shepeardes Calender, to his unfinished crowning work, The Faerie Queene, and his controversial treatise, A View of the Present State of Ireland. The collection presents a wide range of critical responses, including the important new historicist work of Stephen Greenblatt, Louis Montrose and Richard Helgerson, the post-structuralist and psychoanalytic readings of Jonathan Goldberg and David Lee Miller and the femminist analyses of Pamela Benson and Lauren Silberman, as well as other essays by leading American, British and Irish scholars.
The introduction provides an overview of critical responses to Spenser, setting his work and the debates which it has generated in their respective contexts. Further guidance for the reader is provided by the headnotes to the essays and the annotated bibliography.
This volume will be of value to students of English literature at undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as to lecturers.
Andrew Hadfield is Lecturer in English at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He has published widely on Spenser in articles for academic journals and books.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0582247365
• ISBN 13: 9780582247369
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 252