Sir Philip Sidney: the Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Modern readers mostly know Sir Philip Sidneys 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 Pembrokes 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 Sidneys 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 books history and Sidneys use of rhetorical devices, as well as his contributions to the English language. -- .