Introduction to Literature, Part I

Literature can be defined as the collected oral and written works of a society that depict the people’s beliefs, values, mores and aspirations, as well as their struggles in life.

In this column, Vanessa and Bones will publish their views and reviews on English Literature hoping to provide insight and aid to those interested in this subject. Whether you are taking English Literature as part of your course and presently suffering from lazy-ass syndrome or just into it out of love here’s to ya.

The works in question are not presented chronologically but by availability and demand for the said topic.

Due to the rarity of material about Edmund Spenser and some college professors insistence on assigning “fool’s errands” to unfortunate students. This is a good place to start.

Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599)

Edmund Spenser was born in East Smithfield, London. He first studied at the Merchant Tailors’ School and then to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge (that’s England). At college, he was fortunate in getting acquainted with Gabriel Harvey, a notable scholar and critic back then. Harvey was instrumental in getting the young author appointed to the Earl of Leicester’s household. Thus earning the patronage of royalty that later allow Spenser to be noticed by the greatest patron of the arts in all of the British Isles at that time, Queen Elizabeth I.