Books one and five (two, three, and four are coming later--figure that one out) of Spenser's opus get the red-carpet treatment. Each volume has an introduction, annotations, bibliography, glossary to get you through the old English, character index, and more. Footnotes mercifully appear at the bottom of each page so you don't have to flip constantly to the back. Nice for the academics. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Spenser’s long but incomplete epic, allegorically instructive and linguistically archaic, is also a fantasy romp among knights, monsters, witches, and beautiful damsels. David Timson both conveys the fun and actually makes the poem easier to understand (though perhaps still daunting for newcomers) by interpreting it through his narration. He uses his voice richly and well to convey both the emotion and thought of the text with clarity and intelligence. He skillfully distinguishes and characterizes, especially, the male personae, sometimes using class and regional accents. His females are less convincing, and his voice for the heroine, Britomart, is oddly unpleasant. But Timson’s fine reading rescues the poem from academic dryness and renders it as the pleasurable entertainment it was, at least in part, meant to be. W.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine