Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin Classics (1987), Edition: 3rd Printing, Paperback, 880 pages
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.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Caomhghin
Not the most straightforward of books to review. To enjoy Arcadia you first have to accept a style which has gone deeply out of favour. It is highly, intricately rhetorical with sentences which build up, Pelion on Ossa, to very long, elaborate creations whilst meandering in and out of parentheses.
The actual descriptions of places, armour, dress, building etc are hugely decorative and literally gorgeous - gleaming and glistening with bright colours, jewels and fabrics. Sidney loves dwelling on the details of a suit of a knight's equipage and armour, for instance.
The characters don't so much have conversations as make speeches at another - presenting a case forensically very often. Again you grow accustomed to this as you realise the book and plot move forward in away which is different from the modern novel. Action is deliberate, thought out, analysed. When, on a couple of occasions, badly or un- thought out actions are undertaken they end in disaster. Evidently Sidney believed in knowing where you were going.
The plot - well it's a semi-pastoral, semi-heroic/epic story - that means princes disguised as shepherds or Amazons, kidnap, heroic battles and tourneys, reliance on coincidence (otherwise known as divine providence).
I loved it. Having worked my way into it and letting it wash over and through you, you come to appreciate its colour and stately procession and the way the language winds its way through the plot. I did wonder how far it reflected actual life at royal and aristocratic courts as experienced by Sidney. For instance you didn't have the luxury of free speech. No saying "God, the king has really cocked things up again, hasn't he!". That way led to the block. So you were more circumspect in what you said, and made considered pronouncements statements even when talking to one's peers. Imagine a super hyper-polite version of Jane Austen. Again how you performed at a tourney, how elaborately you were dressed (and what signals you were sending by dressing just so) and how far people respected you or thought you flighty or steady, all of which are evident in the book, could have reflected court life.
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The actual descriptions of places, armour, dress, building etc are hugely decorative and literally gorgeous - gleaming and glistening with bright colours, jewels and fabrics. Sidney loves dwelling on the details of a suit of a knight's equipage and armour, for instance.
The characters don't so much have conversations as make speeches at another - presenting a case forensically very often. Again you grow accustomed to this as you realise the book and plot move forward in away which is different from the modern novel. Action is deliberate, thought out, analysed. When, on a couple of occasions, badly or un- thought out actions are undertaken they end in disaster. Evidently Sidney believed in knowing where you were going.
The plot - well it's a semi-pastoral, semi-heroic/epic story - that means princes disguised as shepherds or Amazons, kidnap, heroic battles and tourneys, reliance on coincidence (otherwise known as divine providence).
I loved it. Having worked my way into it and letting it wash over and through you, you come to appreciate its colour and stately procession and the way the language winds its way through the plot. I did wonder how far it reflected actual life at royal and aristocratic courts as experienced by Sidney. For instance you didn't have the luxury of free speech. No saying "God, the king has really cocked things up again, hasn't he!". That way led to the block. So you were more circumspect in what you said, and made considered pronouncements statements even when talking to one's peers. Imagine a super hyper-polite version of Jane Austen. Again how you performed at a tourney, how elaborately you were dressed (and what signals you were sending by dressing just so) and how far people respected you or thought you flighty or steady, all of which are evident in the book, could have reflected court life.
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LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
This is my personal candidate as the first Fantasy book written in English. I don't call it a medieval romance, because it's set in a deliberately invented background, the poetic kingdom of Arcadia. And, as it was cleared for publication by the Lord chancellor in 1593, it's not medieval in date,
Eventually i finished it and it does have some entertaining content, but it was so successful in seizing the popular taste of the time, that now it's full of cliches, both plotwise and in figures of speech. I think it is still worth a look at by moderns, and it is due to be ripped off again by some Science fiction guy looking to revamp a classic with a "modern Re-Telling'.
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and the combats in it are sword and shield, not rapier and dagger. Is it in Elizabethan prose? Yesiree, Bob! But the spelling is regularized, so it's more readable than Spencer's Fairie Queene. Eventually i finished it and it does have some entertaining content, but it was so successful in seizing the popular taste of the time, that now it's full of cliches, both plotwise and in figures of speech. I think it is still worth a look at by moderns, and it is due to be ripped off again by some Science fiction guy looking to revamp a classic with a "modern Re-Telling'.
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Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1590
Physical description
880 p.; 7.8 inches
ISBN
014043111X / 9780140431117