A Continuation of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia [Paperback]

Anna Weamys'sA Continuation of Sir Philip Sidney'sArcadiais a woman's contribution to one of the dominant genres of her sex's readership in the seventeenth century: the heroic romance. Part of the considerable power and appeal of this work is its reduction of the heroic romance to a smaller scale. In its shorter length and its comparatively direct style, it avoids the fustian and bloat of the form. At the same time, it elaborates on the genre's stronger points--its playfulness and fantasy, its explorations of the nuances of sensibility--while not sacrificing its capacity for political statement. Weamys'sArcadiais an interesting and accessible story that, while it pairs well with Sidney, can stand on its own or be paired with other writers of romance like Shakespeare or Spenser. The 0irst appearance of the text since the seventeenth century, this volume includes both a modernized and an old-spelling edition of the text.

Anna Weamys's continuation of theNew Arcadiain Patrick Cullen's splendid edition is a major and very attractive addition to this emerging archive of Renaissance women's writing. --Renaissance Quarterly

Cullen's edition of Weamys'A Continuation of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadiawill prove useful to scholars and students alike because of the thorough preparation of the text, the very useful appendices, the thoughtful and readable introduction, and the inclusion of both a modern version and a reprint of the original. --Sixteenth Century Journal