Product Description

Basilus, a foolish old duke, consults an oracle as he imperiously wishes to know the future, but he is less than pleased with what he learns. To escape the oracle’s horrific prophecies about his family and kingdom he withdraws into pastoral retreat with his wife and two daughters. When a pair of wandering princes fall in love with the princesses and adopt disguises to gain access to them, all manner of complications, both comic and serious, ensue. Part-pastoral romance, part-heroic epic, Sidney’s long narrative work was hugely popular for centuries after its first publication in 1593, inspiring two sequels and countless imitations, and contributing greatly to the development of the novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #132788 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 880 pages

About the Author
Sir Philip Sidney (1554 – 1586) became one of the Elizabethan Age'smost prominent figures. Famous in his day in England as a poet, courtier and soldier, he remains known as a writer of sonnets.

Customer Reviews

Not the 'Old' Arcadia
Beware of the Amazon blurb as this isn't the 'Old' Arcadia (the first version that Sidney wrote), this is the so-called 'New' Arcadia, re-written, expanded and with many of the songs and poems taken out. However it's still my favourite version.

A huge work that deliberately confounds genre this is both epic and romance, both 'novel' and poetry. The closest thing like it is Spenser's The Faerie Queen (although that is verse and this is prose) or the Hellenistic novels, Daphnis & Chloe or the Ethiopica.

Whatever you want to call it though this is a marvellous read: full of shipwrecks and princesses, knights in disguise and love-lorn shepherds. Multiple narratives keep the story moving despite the Elizabethan love of rhetoric (and few do that better than Sidney!) and the sheer ability and love of story-telling come through admirably.

Not always an easy read at first as you do need to get into Sidney's rhythm but a fantastic (in all senses of the word) one.

** Edit **

I've just noticed that Amazon have published this review under all the various editions of the Arcadia, so just to clarify: the Oxford World Classics (called the 'old' Arcadia) IS the old Arcadia; but the Penguin edition called the Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, despite the Amazon blurb which describes it as the old Arcadia, is actually the 'new' composite version with the first three books revised by Sidney and then tacked onto the last two books of the 'old' Arcadia, with most of the eclogic poetry stripped out.