Books

SPENSER, Edmund, The Faerie Queene. With an exact Collation of the Two Original Editions, Published by Himself [Spenser] at London in Quarto; the Former containing the first Three Books printed in 1590, and the Latter the Six Books in 1596. To which are now added, A new Life of the Author, and also a Glossary. Adorn'd with thirty-two Copper-Plates, from the Original Drawings of the late W. KENT, Esq., London: Printed for J. Brindely. . . , 1751. 3 volumes. 4to, pp. [ii], lxiii [lxiv blank], xxxvii [xxxviii blank, xxxix - xl Contents, xli errata, xlii blank], 453 [454 blank]; [ii], 440, 20 full-page engraved plates in volume 1, 7 full-page engraved plates in volume 2, 5 full-page engraved plates in volume 3, dully rebound (probably 19th century) in quarter calf, publisher's cloth; tear in pp. 125-126 in volume 3, but otherwise a good clean set with good impressions of the plates. The life is by Thomas Birch, prolific writer, member of the Society of Antiquaries and Fellow of the Royal…

The Faerie Queene is a celebrated epic poem by Edmund Spenser, first published in 1590. The poem is an allegory praising Queen Elizabeth I and reflecting the values and ideologies of Elizabethan England. It is one of the longest poems in the English language and is renowned for its richly imaginative narrative and moral allegory.