The Faerie Queene: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Faerie Queene, credited to Edmund Spenser, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser. Read in English by Thomas A. Copeland Spenser planned a 24-book romance-epic consisting of two parts, of which he completed half of the first. The first twelve books were to illustrate the development of virtues within the individual soul, and the second twelve were to depict the application of these moral virtues to remedying evils that afflict the world. Each of the first set of quests was to begin at the court of the Fairy Queen, Gloriana, and the knights were to return thither after having defeated some foe representing a personal weakness. Having thus proved themselves, they were qualified to undertake the second quests, in the world. The neat plan becomes somewhat muddled by Book 3, which nevertheless contains the philosophical core of the poem's allegorical structure: the Platonic notion that love (grace) unifies the cosmos and draws the will, through the pursuit of beauty, into virtuous action, returning to God at last in worship. The plot structure of the poem is rich and complex, with many strands interlinked and overlapping, each replete with allegorical significance. (Summary by Thomas Copeland)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Faerie Queene
• Author credits: Edmund Spenser
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 75
• Listed recording duration: 31:54:35

Catalogue topics

• satire
• poetry
• politics
• philosophy
• religion
• psychology
• instruction
• adventure

Opening tracks: first 24 of 75

1. 00 - Faerie Queene Front Matter — 35:56
2. 01 - Faerie Queene I.i — 29:45
3. 02 - Faerie Queene I.ii — 22:00
4. 03 - Faerie Queene I.iii — 21:49
5. 04 - Faerie Queene I.iv — 27:14
6. 05 - Faerie Queene I.v — 25:22
7. 06 - Faerie Queene I.vi — 22:50
8. 07 - Faerie Queene I.vii — 25:01
9. 08 - Faerie Queene I.viii — 25:41
10. 09 - Faerie Queene I.ix — 28:39
11. 10 - Faerie Queene I.x — 31:27
12. 11 - Faerie Queene I.xi — 26:42
13. 12 - Faerie Queene I.xii — 20:32
14. 13 - Faerie Queene II.i — 33:18
15. 14 - Faerie Queene II.ii — 21:18
16. 15 - Faerie Queene II.iii — 22:42
17. 16 - Faerie Queene II.iv — 22:42
18. 17 - Faerie Queene II.v — 19:34
19. 18 - Faerie Queene II.vi — 25:32
20. 19 - Faerie Queene II.vii — 32:10
21. 20 - Faerie Queene II.viii — 27:29
22. 21 - Faerie Queene II.ix — 28:28
23. 22 - Faerie Queene II.x — 37:13
24. 23 - Faerie Queene II.xi — 23:30

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.