23) Edmund Spenser, by Rosemary Freeman

This is a very slim pamphlet of thirty pages, published around 1960 as part of a series on “Writers and Their Works” for the British Council and the National Book League. I realised a little while ago that if I am serious about researching sixteenth-century Ireland, I will have to get into Spenser’s writings, especially his poetry; this booklet gave me a reasonable overview of his works, including one very important tip – don’t start The Faerie Queene by reading the explanatory letter to Sir Walter Ralegh which is printed in most editions as a preface, just get into the poem directly. I will have to tackle the original texts at some point but at least I now have a better idea of what I am getting into.