"Cavanagh has managed to give an almost entirely new reading of [The Faerie Queene]; it is the first feminist rereading of the entire epic, and it reshapes the contours of the huge poem in often startling and remarkable ways." Maureen Quilligan, University of Pennsylvania " ... very readable, lucid, intriguing study ... " Spenser Newsletter " ... a very thoroughgoing inventory of the cruel male fantasies and nightmares imposed on ... female-gendered figures ... " Studies in English Literature 1500-1900