Notable Images of Virtues and Vices

When Sir Philip Sidney decided to rewrite his pastoral novel called "Arcadia, " he expanded it into a romance epic in prose, calling in mind the great Italian Renaissance epics of Ariosto and Tasso.

This book analyzes the way in which Sidney adapted the typical characters of the romance epics. Unlike the Italian authors, Sidney presented his characters so that they constantly invite the moral judgment of the reader, and he emphasized their inner lives, thereby making "The New Arcadia" the predecessor of the modern novel.