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Rating: 
Summary: The Journeys of Redcross Knight
Review: For anyone who enjoys reading about knights, legends, and heroic deeds, this book is a must. In a fantasy world, created by Edmund Spencer, the young and inexperienced Redcross Knight must save Lady Una's kingdom from a fierce dragon. The annotations and definitions are a valuable contribution to this work originally written in the 1500's.
Rating: 
Summary: Enchanting
Review: I have never had much patience with poetry; I prefer a good story to sentimentalism and obscure imagery. Nevertheless, I read this book when I learned that St. George and the Dragon, one of my favorite stories, is in The Faerie Queen. What a pleasure! I could hardly put the book down. The imagery is so vivid and the language so beautiful. Mr. Maynard's notes are very helpful without being distracting or interrupting the flow of the poetry.
Rating:
Summary: Transcendental (but not the Emerson type)
Review: Roy Maynard ought to be commended for aiding us in reading Spenser. Personally, I think Spenser tells a better yarn than Shakespeare, with all due respect to the Bard. This book was written by a Christian, with powerful Christian overtones, and Christians will benefit the most from it. The language is archaic, the story is...well...schockingly relevant. I said in the title that the book is transcendental. What I mean is the book, in certain sections, touches areas that strikes the reader to the core. No, the hero is not perfect. Yes, he fails over and over again. But the battles he fights! The nature of forgiveness, pain, guilt, ecstatic joy--Spenser pulld no punches. And to point out another irony of historical revisionism prevalent in the public schools: Spenser has sexual allusions (fear not, for they are used to show, in the words of CS Lewis, "the fierceness of Chastity" and the bloody fight that its worth); even more shocking is that Spenser is a proto-Puritan, thus debunking the whole Puritan "prude" myth. By the way, the true hero in the book is King Arthur, not Redcrosse; you will see why later in the book. Yes, the book is hard to read, even with Maynard's annotations. But oddly enough, it is easy to follow, by and large. I will end with a quote from CS Lewis, "...to read Spenser is to grow in mental health."
Rating:
Summary: Transcendental (but not the Emerson type)
Review: Roy Maynard ought to be commended for aiding us in reading Spenser. Personally, I think Spenser tells a better yarn than Shakespeare, with all due respect to the Bard. This book was written by a Christian, with powerful Christian overtones, and Christians will benefit the most from it. The language is archaic, the story is...well...schockingly relevant. I said in the title that the book is transcendental. What I mean is the book, in certain sections, touches areas that strikes the reader to the core. No, the hero is not perfect. Yes, he fails over and over again. But the battles he fights! The nature of forgiveness, pain, guilt, ecstatic joy--Spenser pulld no punches. And to point out another irony of historical revisionism prevalent in the public schools: Spenser has sexual allusions (fear not, for they are used to show, in the words of CS Lewis, "the fierceness of Chastity" and the bloody fight that its worth); even more shocking is that Spenser is a proto-Puritan, thus debunking the whole Puritan "prude" myth. By the way, the true hero in the book is King Arthur, not Redcrosse; you will see why later in the book. Yes, the book is hard to read, even with Maynard's annotations. But oddly enough, it is easy to follow, by and large. I will end with a quote from CS Lewis, "...to read Spenser is to grow in mental health."
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