Not the 'Old' Arcadia
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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 revised by Sidney, with most of the eclogic poetry stripped out.
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