The Faerie Queene, Books Three and Four (Bk. 3 & 4)

These paired Arthurian legends suggest that erotic desire and the desire for companionship undergird national politics. The maiden Britomart, Queen Elizabeth's fictional ancestor, dons armor to search for a man whom she has seen in a crystal ball. While on this quest, she seeks to understand how one can be chaste while pursuing a sexual goal, in love with a man while passionately attached to a woman, a warrior princess yet a wife. As Spenser's most sensitively developed character, Britomart is capable of heroic deeds but also of teenage self-pity. Her experience is anatomized in the stories of other characters, where versions of love and friendship include physical gratification, torture, mutual aid, competition, spiritual ecstasy, self-sacrifice, genial teasing, jealousy, abduction, wise government, sedition, and the valiant defense of a pig shed.

• The Faerie Queene, Book Six and the Mutabilitie Cantos (Hackett Classics) (Bk. 6)
• Oroonoko (Penguin Classics)
• Passing (Penguin Classics)
• Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Bilingual Edition)
• The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Tenth Edition) (Vol. Package 2: Volumes D, E, F)
• Absalom, Absalom! The Corrected Text
• Paradise Lost (Hackett Classics)
• The Faerie Queene, Book 5 (Bk. 5)
• The Faerie Queene, Book One (Hackett Classics) (Bk. 1)
• The Faerie Queene, Book Two (Hackett Classics) (Bk. 2)