An Apology for Poetry (or The Defence of Poesy): Sir Philip Sidney / Edition 1

by R. W. Maslen

Overview

An Apology for Poetry (or The Defence of Poesy), by the celebrated soldier-poet Sir Philip Sidney, is the most important work of literary theory published in the Renaissance. The new introduction and notes include a wealth of new information and new readings drawing on recent developments in Renassance Studies. Unfamiliar words and phrases are glossed, classical and other references explained, and difficult passages analysed in detail. The first separate edition of Sidney's seminal text to be published for more than a decade. Since 1965 Geoffrey Shepherd's edition of the Apology has been the standard, and this revision of Shepherd's edition, with a new introduction and extensive notes, is designed to introduce Sidney's best-known work to a new generation of readers at the beginning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780719053764
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
Publication date:	08/08/2002
Edition description:	Second Edition, Revised Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

R. W. Maslen is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Glasgow

Table of Contents

1. Select Bibliography
2. Introduction
3. An Apology for Poetry
4. Notes
5. Index/ Index of names

Editorial Reviews

Sidney probably wrote the piece shortly after Edmund Spensor's was printed in December 1579. Shepherd characterizes it as both a celebration of the limitless capacity of poetry as it might be, and a diagnosis of its lamentable condition in Sidney's time. Delving into central concern of late 17th-century European politics, he says, it is also a controversial political document, an intervention in international affairs, and a more or less covert critique of the government of the day for its foreign and domestic policies. He also edited the 1965 edition, published by Thomas Nelson and Sons, and the 1973 edition. R. W. Maslen revised and expanded the third edition. Distributed in the US by Palgrave. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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