The Faerie Queene is a masterpiece of human literary endeavor, an absolutely brilliant artwork wrought with words. The language that Spenser uses is vivid and evocative as he weaves his poetical, allegorical tale. Filled with knights and battles, monsters and mythology, cosmology, philosophy, adventure, and romance,  The Faerie Queene  is a poem of epic scope and amazing imagery. This massive Penguin Classics paperback edition contains a substantial amount of notes to illuminate Spenser's purpose and genius, as well as to make clear the obscurities of his language. As a reader, I fell into Spenser's rhythms and rhymes and had very little difficulty, thanks to the materials the editors provided, in understanding Spenser's ambitious vision as I got swept away in the imagery and pagentry of the words dancing to life on the page.