Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene: A Prose Rendering

Final reread of Volume Two
9 months ago – Sat, Feb 24, 2024 at 03:08:45 PM

I've now printed out Volume Two (Books Three and Four) for a final read through before sending to press. I made it through most of Book Three over the past two days, and today I spent eight straight hours sitting in one chair, working through Book Four.

I decided to do this final reread with all six books (and remnant cantos) because for five years, I focused intently on making sure the rendering was as technically correct as I could make it while remaining accessible. But I am also a poet at heart, so with this final read-through, I was able to "listen" to the text as a reader, helping each sentence become as beautiful as it could be while remaining true to Spenser's content.

The last thing I expected has occurred while simply looking for beauty. Seeking musicality in every word allowed me to relax into my more natural mode of reading, and through this, I found a few technical oversights that I had missed while straining to be perfect in my translation! Isn't that nuts?

I found several instances of logical disconnect that I think might originate in Spenser's writing. Critics have long noted a few rare internal errors, swapping names of characters and such, throughout The Faerie Queene. But today, I noticed a few new things that I don't remember seeing in the criticism that I've read to date. Maybe I have just forgotten something in that huge stack of books. Surely someone has written about this stuff already, but despite the scads of books I've read, the things I noticed were new to me. Tonight when the house gets quiet, I want to pour over the related sections of original text in detail and make sure that what I think I found is on point. But isn't it strange that after dozens of times reading this so closely, I'm still discovering things? 

The good news is, I love Spenser more every time I read him. I got goosebumps three times while reading Book Four and tears in my eyes twice.  

The best two fight scenes in the world are in this book. (Anybody know a big movie maker? Call me to consult when this goes to film. These battles are better than anything in The Lord of the Rings--sorry, Tolkien.) And there's this one romance. Gosh, is there a romance. I can't ruin the surprise, but you need to plan for a reconciliation more powerful than Darc-lizabeth's. 

But Spenser is also dead wrong and frustratingly biased in some places. I keep writing nasty, fiery footnotes about his worst presumptions, then trying to tone those down because this project is supposed to be academic. But he makes me so deeply angry here and there. And I also love him so much! You'll see what I mean when you get there.

P.S., it's been terribly lonely knowing these stories back and forth until they are ingrained in my being and having so few people with whom I can talk about them. (Thank goodness for editors!)  So, I need a faithful band of you to promise me that if you get irked at the hero of Book Two, YOU WILL NOT STOP READING until you get to the end of Book Three.  (Pinkie swear.) After Book Three, you'll be freaking out and naturally want to finish Book Four. 

I was telling someone yesterday that Spenserian critics seem to be such a different breed than any other group of critics I've seen elsewhere. I told my new friend, "Spenserian critics are not like Shakespearean critics. They are an eclectic, crazy, nerdy, fascinating, passionate, imaginative group of people. Imagine a sci-fi-Chaucerian-kaiju-folklore hybrid that plays D-and-D on the weekend. Their writing is way more fun than any academic material should ever be. It almost hurts to have read it, know it’s out there, and then not be able to drag people to finding it."

So, calling all nerds. We need to have a forum or something so we can talk all this through after you get your books. Edmund Spenser; hate him and love him with me.

Yeah, I have tears in my eyes again.

Anyway, tremendous progress is being made. We're getting so close.

I'm so thankful to be in this with you all.

Rebecca

 

I love it when a plan comes together.
10 months ago – Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 04:22:02 PM

Well, I bet you weren't expecting to find an A-Team meme in a 1590s poem rendering update. But, just like John Hannibal Smith, "I love it when a plan comes together." Here's how I'm seeing such progress this week:

Update One: Volume One is at the typesetter! Woohoo! I feel like I lost about a thousand pounds hitting that send button.

Update Two: I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but it's also looking like I will be able to print Volume Two on paper to start looking for micro edits in a few days. Gosh, it's nuts to see months and years of invisible labor coming together so rapidly all of a sudden! 

There's actually a reason for this. <STAGE RIGHT: RR bites her Hannibal cigar and smiles wryly>

For months, my editor and I have been plugging through all three volumes simultaneously with staggered checklists. If we juggled all that correctly, our efforts were supposed to click like this at the end. But who isn't a little surprised when things actually go according to plan?

I'll keep this update short, but thanks again for jumping in on this project. I'm grateful for you all!

Rebecca

Volume One is Heading to Layout!
10 months ago – Fri, Feb 09, 2024 at 03:42:31 PM

We read, and we reread, and we reread, and we reread--but after printing off Volume One and rereading every single word (for the bazillionth time), I still found things I wanted to tweak! Can you believe it? It's crazy how seeing all of this on paper brought things to the surface I hadn't noticed on a screen. 

The attached video will show you circled bits I wanted to reconsider, and the victorious diagonal marks across the pages (aka: BeccaZorro slashes) mean fixes have been implemented, and the page is finished.

It's equally terrifying and thrilling to think about sending this to layout, but after my dear editor checks on a handful of tiny lingering questions this evening, it's going to happen. We're dropping the baby off at college. Woohoo!

We've decided our print size will be the same as the first edition Baum Sea Faeries book. 7"x9.25. It's also my favorite size book to hold! The dimensions provide such gorgeous balance, and it's just a charming vintage shape. I think it will be a beautiful  fit for this particular material. I won't know for sure until layout inserts the images, but I'm guessing that Volume One will be around 400 pages.

Meanwhile, Dear Editor is faithfully plugging along with next-to-final edits on the remaining two volumes. So I'm hoping to get those printed this coming week (Office Depot is going to love me), circle a bunch more, and slash my way through every remaining bit of this epic poem.

If you heard a barbaric yalp full of sound and fury signifying nothing about 4:30 EST today, that was me. Sorry. I was scratching through official style manuals created by official grammarians who are officially correct in every official capacity, looking for the latest, greatest rules on when to use commas after introductory words. 

Friends, it's chaos out there.

A few hard-and-fast rules remain, the last edifices of cold, hard, highbrow dominion. Yet something called "personal style" seems to be the hyrda-du-jour. 

Professional correctors from Team Economy are chopping heads and commas off here and there while professional correctors from Team Rigor are growing them right back in the dark of night. Everyone is more certain about this issue than your family sitting around the Thanksgiving table talking about the next election.

The Chicago Manual of Style, my darling stronghold in the madness, sits strangely silent on an issue for which I need it most desperately. It throws me sweeping standards, but I need minutia. 

Does anyone have Monty Don's cell? Can we all just agree that when humanity is at an impasse, we can use a 1-800 Monty Don hotline, and whatever he says about any issue, goes?

Anyway, I've searched the entire Volume One document more times than I want to admit universally implementing one rule from one style book, then going back through and universally implementing another rule from another style book. In the end, I've decided to land with team economy, mostly. So blame me, not my editor, if that isn't your preference.

That's the news from Lake Woe-Is-Me. 

Overall, I am so, so excited about what you're about to receive. Despite all the circles and slashes you see in that video, there were dozens of times I found myself rereading and saying aloud, "I LOVE THIS!" I'm just so excited for you to journey through Faerie Land!

Thanks so much for your help!

Rebecca



 

Another Milestone and a Chance to Win a Free Mug
10 months ago – Tue, Jan 30, 2024 at 04:01:16 PM

Tomorrow is a big day! I'm printing the doc file for Volume One (Books One and Two) on copy paper, snapping it into a three-ring binder with our 13-page  style sheet, and hauling it to a quiet place to start combing through every word one last time before finalizing it. 

Below, I'm attaching four screen shots of our current draft of a bibliography for Volume One. I've been telling you that a lot of research has gone into this endeavor. You can see at least some evidence of that labor here.

Also, want to win a free Faerie Queene mug?

I have spent months searching for the source of one particular quote. It sounds like it could have been written by either C.S. Lewis or Humphrey Tonkin, but I can't find the exact place. I've searched JSTOR, Google Books, etc. Nada. A few of my friends think I must have written this line and forgot to separate it from the text. I'm starting to wonder if that's what happened. But I need to make 100% sure before I claim this sucker as my own.

I'll include the quote below. If you are the first one to post in a comment under this update that you've found this quote word-for-word in a source, I'll add a free mug to your order. (Send me the author, year of publication, page number, etc. too.) I might also jump up and down and yell, "I LOVE YOU, _____(insert your name)_______, YOU'VE SAVED MY LIFE!" (But you won't be able to see that part.)


Here's the renegade quote: "Love can compel the romantic hero instead of simply quest."

Wish me luck (and eagle eyes) as I do a final text scan. 

Rebecca

Faerie Queene Update: Placing the Illustrations
10 months ago – Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 08:58:38 AM

Hello to all,

I'm starting to tackle what feels like another milestone today--selecting placement of illustrations within the text. This seems like something you'd enjoy hearing about, so I decided to make a quick update.

Our brilliant illustrator Justin Gerard created over seventy illustrations for this project, and it's now time to start planning to embed them within the story. I've always loved the way vintage books provide a master list of illustrations at the beginning of the text, so today I'm making sure each piece of art is appropriately labeled, then making notes to help the typesetter know where each image should appear.

Of course, the typesetter may have to move a few things around a bit when we see the text in layout.  But regardless, it's going to be thrilling to finally see the synthesis we've worked so  hard for so long to create.

I'm starting to have my first serious daydreams about production. I've tried to exercise mental discipline and not think too much about seeing these books on a shelf until we could ensure that the text is incredibly solid. But as the finish line is now clearly approaching, I confess, my stomach is filling with flutters.  I feel silly saying, "This is really going to happen!" We all knew that, right?  But you know how there's "know" and then there's "know-know"? The know-know is beginning. 

I'll stick in a few low-res screen shots of spot illustrations below to whet your appetite. There are so many more where these came from.

Thanks for hanging in there with us! 

Rebecca