Paradise Lost aside, at around a thousand pages this is probably the most prominent English epic in poetry, not that there are many contenders. It is divided up into 6 main books, each of which contains tales on a specific virtue of chivalry; Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Justice, Friendship, and Courtesy. Each of these has a main character, or characters, which represents the virtue, and stories to illustrate it. These contain tales which are generally about them overcoming foes that represent the opposite of the virtue, such as the courteous knight defeating a rude one. They are all good moral tales, except that a lot of people get killed, and are full of allegory, though it is thinly veiled. The storys interweave with each other, with the main characters reappearing, and encountering one another, which stops it from feeling like a disjointed group of separate stories, which it is not.
I think Spenser does very well to keep up the poetical form he uses, over the lenght of the book, and slips up in metre only rarely, which can be excused. The poetical imagery is a bit repetitive, but in a work of this lenght containing many tales of a simple formula - good knight goes on quest to kill infidel foe/save fair damsel - it cannot be avoided.
Some readers unused to 16th Century language may struggle a bit, but those who do not mind it should find it interesting. Many of the words are out of usage now, or have changed since, in the text a lot more of the Germanic influence on our language is visible, which is not noticible in the same way in modern English. There is a big list of the unfamiliar words and phrases at the end of the second volume, which is useful to consult when you come across something unfamiliar.
Some of the stories, I found, were more engaging than others. I doubt a lot of people will have the patience to read both volumes front to back, it is not the same as reading a novel, and due to the lack of a strong overarching plot, the reader is unlikely to find themselves unable to put it down. ( )

Perhaps the weirdest, wildest, and wooliest book ever written. ( )

Spencer is immensely talented. Format is okay. Glossary excellent and introctuction extremely helpful ( )

Apparently no study of English Renaissance literature is complete without a knowledge of Spenser, Milton and Sidney.

Beautifully written, rich in imagery and symbolism. Recommend in very small doses, so as to avoid death by stifling allegory. ( )