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Rating: 
Summary: Spenser's Pagan Epic???
Review: Another review of this book (by tepi) is one of the worst I've read. Take these two sentences, for instance: 1.) "If, as people like Heale would have us think, Spenser had written a versified theological treatise, it would long since have been trashed along with all the other theological lumber of his era." That might make one wonder why people still read Milton. Or Petrach. Or Dante. Or the Psalms. Or Job. 2.) "And ultimately, as with any poem, the only real meaning it can have for you is the one that you yourself give it, a personal and individual meaning, a meaning that will slowly take shape as you expose yourself to more and more of Spenser's gorgeous Pagan lines." If the reader is the one bringing the meaning to the poem, then tepi can't say Spencer's lines are Pagan; the meaning is only Pagan if the reader brings that meaning himself. Heale would have just as much right to give it a theological meaning, as he does a Pagan one. But reading isn't about reading your own interpretation into a work. Literature is a form of communication, from author to reader. Meaning is the author's intent. Books like Heale's can help us understand more clearly what certain authors, far removed from today, are trying to tell us.
Rating:
Summary: Spenser's Pagan Epic???
Review: THE FAERIE QUEENE : A Reader's Guide. By Elizabeth Heale. 190 pp. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, Second Edition 1999. ISBN 0521 65468 8 (pbk.) Heale's book is a brief official guide to Spenser's great epic, and reads, I'm sorry to say, as if it were written during the throes of an intense devotional spasm. Heale makes very heavy going indeed of the Christian element and enthuses at such great length about St Paul, the New Testament, Calvin, God's grace, sin, salvation, etc., etc., that one begins to think one is reading a theologian and not a critic. Interestingly, while she admits that "it is easy to be heavy-handed and over-insistent when following the historical allegory" of the poem (p.230), she fails completely to realize that the same might be said of her own theological obsessions. If, as people like Heale would have us think, Spenser had written a versified theological treatise, it would long since have been trashed along with all the other theological lumber of his era. But naturally enough, since the Pagan stands for what is natural in man (as opposed to unnatural imposition), it was very much at war with the Christian in Spenser. And although, in deference to the age, he had go along with the prevailing ideology and pretend to a certain orthodoxy, it was the Pagan in Spenser who won, as indeed it must in all healthy and balanced persons. That's why he was able to give us such a gloriously sensual poem, a poem grounded in the human body and in physical realities as opposed to the airy abstractions and arid lucubrations of the theologian. 'The Faerie Queene' is highly addictive. Besides constantly dipping into it, I have read the complete poem with great enjoyment several times without bothering my head in the slightest with the sort of thing that deeply concerns Heale. But perhaps that's because I read it as poetry and not as moribund theology. Spenser's poem was written for us. Lucky us! Heale's book was written for students. Poor students! My advice? Forget about Heale and read Spenser. He himself is the best guide to his poem. And ultimately, as with any poem, the only real meaning it can have for you is the one that you yourself give it, a personal and individual meaning, a meaning that will slowly take shape as you expose yourself to more and more of Spenser's gorgeous Pagan lines.
Rating: 
Summary: Spenser's Glorious Pagan Poem.
Review: THE FAERIE QUEENE : A Reader's Guide. By Elizabeth Heale. 190 pp. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, Second Edition 1999. ISBN 0521 65468 8 (pbk.) Heale's book is a brief official guide to Spenser's great epic, and reads, I'm sorry to say, as if it were written during the throes of an intense devotional spasm. Heale makes very heavy going indeed of the Christian element and enthuses at such great length about St Paul, the New Testament, Calvin, God's grace, sin, salvation, etc., etc., that one begins to think one is reading a theologian and not a critic. Interestingly, while she admits that "it is easy to be heavy-handed and over-insistent when following the historical allegory" of the poem (p.230), she fails completely to realize that the same might be said of her own theological obsessions. If, as people like Heale would have us think, Spenser had written a versified theological treatise, it would long since have been trashed along with all the other theological lumber of his era. But naturally enough, since the Pagan stands for what is natural in man (as opposed to unnatural imposition), it was very much at war with the Christian in Spenser. And although, in deference to the age, he had go along with the prevailing ideology and pretend to a certain orthodoxy, it was the Pagan in Spenser who won, as indeed it must in all healthy and balanced persons. That's why he was able to give us such a gloriously sensual poem, a poem grounded in the human body and in physical realities as opposed to the airy abstractions and arid lucubrations of the theologian. 'The Faerie Queene' is highly addictive. Besides constantly dipping into it, I have read the complete poem with great enjoyment several times without bothering my head in the slightest with the sort of thing that deeply concerns Heale. But perhaps that's because I read it as poetry and not as moribund theology. Spenser's poem was written for us. Lucky us! Heale's book was written for students. Poor students! My advice? Forget about Heale and read Spenser. He himself is the best guide to his poem. And ultimately, as with any poem, the only real meaning it can have for you is the one that you yourself give it, a personal and individual meaning, a meaning that will slowly take shape as you expose yourself to more and more of Spenser's gorgeous Pagan lines.
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