Sir Philip Sidney: The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia - (Manchester Spenser) 2nd Edition

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Modern readers mostly know Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia in its complete 'old' version, but it is the New Arcadia (published in 1590), a revised version of his pastoral romance The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, that was the most influential and most widely imitated literary text of the sixteenth century. Preserving the basic plot, New Arcadia adds further narrative strands and introduces ambitious revisions, demonstrating Sidney's brilliance as a prose writer.

This edition of the New Arcadia is the first in nearly four decades, preserving the text of Victor Skretkowicz' celebrated 1987 edition, whilst making the text accessible through modern spelling and supplementing it with a substantially expanded scholarly commentary, an updated glossary, and additional long notes on the book's history and Sidney's use of rhetorical devices, as well as his contributions to the English language.

From the Back Cover

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.

Review Quotes

'This volume is the new standard.'
--Choice
Reprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association

'This new edition belongs in the collections of every college and university library in the English-speaking world and on the study shelves of every scholar who works with Sidney or with the countless authors whose writing has been enlivened and enlightened by his brilliance.'
--Sidney Journal

'The long-awaited new standard edition of the New Arcadia is now out, and it is magnificent... the most reliable and illuminating edition of Sidney's revised Arcadia ever undertaken.'
--Donald Stump, Sidney Journal

About the Author

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.