God's Only Daughter

Kathryn Walls is Professor of English at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

‘[A] model of a sustained, close, critical reading of a single book. . . ..Its strengths lie precisely in the painstaking and patient unpacking of book 1 through an immensely learned discussion of sixteenth-century theology and in particular the invisible church as conceived in Calvinism’ Renaissance Quarterly, Winter 2014 ‘Walls’s sophisticated exploration of the many cultural and literary infratexts should be required reading for Spenser scholars or graduate students pursuing an interest in this remarkable and important early modern poet. . . . evinces a refreshing independence of inquiry that is unafraid to follow the evidence wherever it leads’Cahiers Elizabethains, 2014‘[P]ersuasively demonstrates that reading Una alongside contemporary Protestant thought about the invisible church greatly enriches her role in the poem. Walls’s tightly-focused book establishes that Una’s travails deserve as much careful attention as those of the knight who seeks her’Spenser Review 44.3.64, Jan 2015 ‘groundbreaking . . . Walls's book is not only crucial to all Spenserians, but to all early modern academics and students. . . . an unflinching reflection [on criticism to date]. . . . an indispensable companion to The Faerie Queene’Parergon 32: 1, 2015

• Introduction: The Incarnation, allegory, and idolatry1. The fallibility of Una2. Una redeemed – the Incarnation3. Una as the City of God4. The City of God in history5. Canto VI – The curch's mission to the gentiles6. Una's adiaphoric dwarf7. Una's trinitatian dimension8. The multiplication of UnaList of work citedIndex