Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2) : Books I-III by Edmund Spenser

"Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2): Books I-III" by Edmund Spenser is an epic poem first published in 1590. This monumental work of over 36,000 lines follows knights on quests that examine different virtues—Holiness, Temperance, and Chastity. Written in Spenser's invented verse form, the Spenserian stanza, the poem operates as elaborate allegory, praising Queen Elizabeth I while aiming to "fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline." Each knight faces trials, temptations, and perils in adventures filled with monsters, wizards, and enchantments. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Read or download for free

How to read Url Size
Read now! https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70717.html.images 2.0 MB
EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70717.epub3.images 8.1 MB
EPUB (older E-readers) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70717.epub.images 8.1 MB
EPUB (no images, older E-readers) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70717.epub.noimages 646 kB
Kindle https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70717.kf8.images 3.0 MB
older Kindles https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70717.kindle.images 3.4 MB
Plain Text UTF-8 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70717.txt.utf-8 1.0 MB
Download HTML (zip) https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70717/pg70717-h.zip 8.3 MB
There may be more files related to this item.

About this eBook

Author Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599
Editor Smith, J. C. (James Cruickshanks), 1867-1946
Title Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2) : Books I-III
Original Publication United Kingdom: Clarendon Press, 1909, reprint 1964.
Note Wikipedia page about this book: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faerie_Queene
Credits Tim Lindell, Carla Foust, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Reading Level Reading ease score: 62.9 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read.
Language English
LoC Class PR: Language and Literatures: English literature
Subject English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
Subject Knights and knighthood -- Poetry
Subject Virtues -- Poetry
Category Text
EBook-No. 70717
Release Date
Most Recently Updated Aug 15, 2025
Copyright Status Public domain in the USA.
Downloads 740 downloads in the last 30 days.
Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free!