Just glad I finally did it

One of my goals in doing this project was to take the time to finally read some of the books sitting on my shelves that have gone unread for years. As you noticed from the last few posts, I have started working my way down that list. (After all, I can't afford to just keep buying new ones!) The greatest bulk of these unread jewels came from that collection previously mentioned and purchased during my undergrad attempt to have an intellectual looking library. Heartened by my great success with the previously intimidating Beowolf,I decided that it was time to conquer one of the great Elizabethan epics, The Faerie Queene. And conquer is most assuredly the right word, because it was a struggle, no, a full on battle, until the last word.

Title: The Faerie Queene
Author: Edmund Spenser
My start date: 8/20/10
My finish date: 8/20/10
Book count: 42/100

The best I can say is that I am just so glad I finally finished it. But SOOOO LOOOONG. Oh my gosh. Spenser must have been really bored. I know I was. Perhaps part of my problem was that I stubbornly tried to read this in a single day. I had the day off from the gym, it was cold and overcast and I had a pile of soft, warm blankets. However, while I do strongly recommend reading Beowolf all in one sitting, I can now say that I most certainly do not recommend the same for all six hundred pages of this epic. What was I thinking? I was thinking, "it is in verse, that isn't like a real six hundred pages, right?" I'm crazy. I also tried the same technique of really engaging in the rhythm and verse by reading it aloud. Yeah, I gave that up after a few hundred pages when I started losing my voice. Although the fact that I had just done the same with the one the night before probably didn't help. Moral: all verse is not alike.

Also, the content of this epic poem is simply not similar to what I had read the night before. It was confusing, with a lot of names and they were strange names at that. There were side stories and all sorts of random bits. I just started plowing through, hoping to find something good.

And occasionally I did. There are a few sections that are really beautiful poetry. I mean, technically, it is all beautiful, but some sections really swept me up. And I especially liked the periodical parades of allegorical figures, in which Spenser describes such greats as the deadly sins, the virtues, or the seasons. Those were fun.

Ok, at least I finished it.

Keep Reading!
Sarah