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4.5
(This is a review of the five-volume edition from Hackett Publishing, first posted April 24, 2015.)As a child, I loved the way Dr. Seuss unreeled his spools of proliferating improbability in intricate patterns of rhythm and rhyme; in fact, I loved it so much that I think he helped wire my brain for the more complex complexities unreeled by Spenser. Even so, when I came to the forests and castles of "The Faerie Queene," it was by way not of McElligot's Pool, but rather of Barsoom, Hyboria, Middle Earth, and Narnia--though I must admit that when C. S. Lewis conducted me across the frontier once and for all it was through "The Allegory of Love" rather than Professor Kirke's wardrobe. (I had previously accompanied the psychologists of the Garaden Institute on an inconclusive foray via syllogismobile.) You see, while reveling in the worlds of fantasy and adventure, I had also begun to look into more serious study of mythology, psychology, morality, and religion, and when on the threshold of my college years I learned from Lewis that all these enthusiasms were united in a single landmark work already enshrined on many a college syllabus, I was hooked.Or, at least, hooked in principle. Knights and ladies, lady knights, quests and combats, a revenant corpse, wizards and witches, wild men, dragons and giants, demons, nymphs and satyrs, gods and goddesses, an iron automaton, a guardian angel--how could I resist? Yet making headway in the poem was difficult, and not only because of the alienating archaism and allegory that loomed before me. In those days it was hard even to find a copy of "The Faerie Queene" that wasn't in minuscule small print, and impossible to find one with helpful annotation for anything like the length of the poem. I persevered, and it was worth it; but it was tough going. But now! Nowadays there are not one but two splendidly legible, fully-annotated Kindle editions (by Roche and Hamilton). Many first-time readers seem completely unfazed by the features of the poem that I found off-putting. And for newcomers who, like my teenage self, are determined to take on the entire poem, yet need basic help from same-page annotation that doesn't threaten to engulf the text, there is Hackett Publishing's five-volume edition. From the darkest infernal depths to the Olympian luminosity of the lunar sphere, wherever the poem takes you, a Hackett editor is at hand with just the amount of information you need to get your bearings and keep on going.It is, on the whole, an advantage of the Hackett set that we get the editorial perspective of a different expert scholar in each volume; the big disadvantage is that five separate volumes are cumbersome to carry around and fumble with if, rather than focusing on a single book at a time, you want to consider all the far-flung corners of the poem synoptically. It would be wonderful to have all five volumes in a single searchable e-book, and, luckily, such an edition does exist; I have it and consult it often. The penetrating introductory essays, succinct annotation, bright illustrated covers (with back-cover blurbs), and original pagination (in the form of page images) are all intact. Yet, apart from Book One, you're not going to find it on Kindle--and the flowing text of the Kindle version, while beautifully readable, not only dispenses with the original pagination, but fudges the traditional stanza format and introduces some confusing typos.So. If you like proliferating improbabilities in intricately patterned rhythm and rhyme, to say nothing of fantasy, adventure, mythology, psychology, morality, or religion, you just might come to love "The Faerie Queene." If you'd like help from judicious same-page annotation, you may find the complete Hackett edition in any of its formats to be invaluable. But since the most convenient format is the e-book containing all five volumes, why, oh why is that not available for Kindle? I just can't fathom it.In the meantime: While you can't get the complete Hackett set for your Kindle e-reader or the Kindle app, you CAN easily get it on the Fire tablet (Kindle Fire, as some still call it). Simply download the Bookshelf app offered by VitalSource Technologies and you'll be able to purchase and download either the complete 5-in-one Hackett "Faerie Queene" or any of the five volumes individually, thus bringing Spenser's prescient 1594 rave at least one step closer to full realization: "KINDLE FIRE ... WONDERFUL DEVICE" ("Amoretti," Sonnet 30, line 12). And the Bookshelf version is both more distinctly legible and much more readily navigable than the Google Play one I used to recommend here.
