About This Site

This website was created by me, Vaughn Stewart, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

This project began when I was a TA for an English survey course covering medieval to 18th-century literature. When my students began studying Book 1 of The Faerie Queene, I found that many of them were frustrated because they felt they were spending more time figuring out the plot than Spenser's art. For a few of the later cantos, I created a very basic outline: giving the students main sections and a list of stanza numbers.

Prof. Darryl Gless, the professor teaching the survey, thought this could be useful and encouraged me to finish my outline for all of Book 1. Other graduate student duties kept me from completing it at that time. In June 2014, Prof. Gless passed away, and I remembered the absolute privilege it was being a TA for him.

This website was created, and Book 1 was completed and published online, in July 2014.