Sir Philip Sidney: The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia: The New Arcadia, Second Revised Edition - Hardcover by Books by splitShops

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by Victor Skretkowicz (Editor), Elisabeth Chaghafi (Editor), J. B. Lethbridge (Editor)

This is an edition of Sir Philip Sidney's New Arcadia in modern spelling that makes the text accessible through an enhanced glossary and expanded commentary covering book history, reception history, and Sidney's contribution to the English language.

Back Jacket

When Sir Philip Sidney died in 1586, he was widely believed to have been one of the greatest English writers - despite the fact that most of his contemporaries had never read any of his works, which had only circulated in manuscript. This changed in 1590, with the publication of the New Arcadia - the revised version of his pastoral romance The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, which introduced him to a broader audience and served to confirm his reputation as a brilliant stylist in prose as well as in verse.
Doubtless part of the New Arcadia's appeal consisted - and still consists - in the plot it largely shares with the Old Arcadia, involving shipwrecked princes going to great lengths to woo princesses who are jealously (if unsuccessfully) guarded by an overprotective father and a foolish shepherd, heroic and mock-heroic battles, various forms of intrigue, and rather a lot of poetry. But it was probably the features that set it apart from its Old cousin that accounted for the New Arcadia's popularity: its elaborate, beautifully crafted style, which prompted numerous imitators, and its revisions to the narrative that deliberately sacrifice linearity for a heightened sense of drama.
This edition of the New Arcadia is the first in nearly four decades. It preserves the text of Victor Skretkowicz' celebrated 1987 edition, while supplementing it with a substantially expanded scholarly commentary, an updated glossary, and additional long notes on the book's history in print and Sidney's use of rhetorical devices.

Author Biography

Victor Skretkowicz joined the Department of English at the University of Dundee in 1978, and remained there until 2009.

Elisabeth Chaghafi is a Lecturer in English at Tübingen University.

J. B. Lethbridge is a Lecturer emeritus at Tübingen University.