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The Ridiculous to the Delightful: Comic Characters in Sidney's New Arcadia
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The Ridiculous to the Delightful: Comic Characters in Sidney's New Arcadia Paperback - 1974

by Robert Nicholas Reeves


From the publisher

Sir Philip Sidney's comic technique, in particular the comic characters in the second version of his pastoral romance, is the subject of this ably written essay. Robert Nicholas Reeves begins with a re-examination of comic theory in Sidney's Defense of Poesy, and proceeds to a reading of the humorous in the Arcadia as a happy kind of moral teaching. He discusses devices employed--irony, ridicule, deflation--and the relation of the low comic figures to the delightful elements of the main plot.

From the rear cover

The style of the Arcadia is simultaneously a prime source of humor and a major hindrance to its enjoyment. The immense length of this book requires that the reader take constant care to distinguish the variations in Sidney's style; as Milton advised, it is not 'to be read at any time without good caution.' The Arcadian prose is brimming with decorative and rhetorical devices--metaphor, parenthesis, antithesis. - from the book.

Details

  • Title The Ridiculous to the Delightful: Comic Characters in Sidney's New Arcadia
  • Author Robert Nicholas Reeves
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition First Edition, F
  • Pages 64
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
  • Date 01/01/1974
  • ISBN 9780674768901 / 0674768906
  • Weight 0.15 lbs (0.07 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.27 x 5.37 x 0.2 in (18.47 x 13.64 x 0.51 cm)
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: British
  • Library of Congress subjects Characters and characteristics in literature, Arcadia in literature
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 73091641
  • Dewey Decimal Code 823.3
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THE RIDICULOUS TO THE DELIGHTFUL : Comic Characters in Sidney's New Arcadia (The LeBaron...
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THE RIDICULOUS TO THE DELIGHTFUL : Comic Characters in Sidney's New Arcadia (The LeBaron Russell Briggs Prize, Honors Essays in English, 1973)

by Robert Nicholas Reeves III

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New
Edition
First Edition, First Thus
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780674768901 / 0674768906
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Description:
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ Press, 1974. First Edition, First Thus . Soft Cover/Stapled. New/None as Issued. Text/NEW & Bright. First Edition. Stapled, green softcover/Fine. A literary, engaging analysis. Reeves persuasively argues that to read Arcadia as an "epic poem in prose" so dulls one's senses to Sidney's numerous ironic manipulations to that readers tend to interpret any given speech superficially at face value. But, Sir Philip Sidney's wit & humor become apparent when the work is approached as an intellectualization of the pastoral romance. Reeves uses the comic subplot of Dametas & his family to demonstrate Sidney's expert comic techniques. Essay begins w/an examination of comic theory in Sidney's Defense of Poesy before to a reading of the humorous in the Arcadia as a mode of moral teaching. He discusses devices employed --- irony, ridicule, deflation & use low comic figures to support the main plot. 64 pgs.
Item Price
$18.50
$5.75 shipping to USA