The New Arcadia

The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, also known simply as the Arcadia, is a long prose pastoral romance by Sir Philip Sidney written towards the end of the 16th century. Having finished one version of his text, Sidney later significantly expanded and revised his work. Scholars today often refer to these two major versions as the Old Arcadia and the New Arcadia. The Arcadia is Sidney's most ambitious literary work by far, and as significant in its own way as his sonnets.

New Arcadia: Stage One is an epic journey back to the year 199X, an ancient era where you must use your fists, your wits, and your pager to survive.In real life, the year is 2023, and life is not great. John Chambers is a middle-aged man in a dead-end job, trapped in his home in the desert. But in the virtual world of New Arcadia, John becomes Blaze, a young urban fighter in a retro beat 'em up city. Blaze has incredible speed and strength, and absolutely zero lower back pain.John / Blaze must team up with Kevin (aka Iceman), to save Jessica (aka Jessica) from the Spankers, a violent street gang in their gritty new neighborhood of Satan's Pantry. But Jessica is not nearly as helpless as they believe.Together, these loners must learn to come together and stop the deadly Drug X from taking over the city. Meanwhile, in the real world, game creator Lucas Dekker must battle enemies of his own - including game-breaking bugs.If they succeed, they just may save New Arcadia?and the real world, too.Strap on your fanny pack, and get ready for the fight of your life.

In a major suspense novel set to surpass the internationally bestselling An Instance of the Fingerpost comes a dazzling story of youth, love and murderous ambition--a novel of time travel spanning three beautifully detailed worlds: the intellectual spires of Oxford in 1960, an ancient Arcadian world, and a dystopian future. In 1960, Henry Lytten is an Oxford don who dabbles in espionage and fiction writing. Rosie Wilson is the quick-witted, curious 15-year-old girl who feeds Professor Lytten's cat. Several hundred years in the future, living in a dystopian society on the Isle of Mull, is Angela Meerson--a brilliant psychomathematician who has discovered the world-changing potential of a powerful new machine. Somewhere, sometime, is Jay--a scholar's apprentice in an idyllic, pastoral land. Who these people really are, and how their stories come together, will be revealed in Iain Pears's fascinating great puzzle of a novel.

A staggering portrait of a crumbling utopia, this "timeless and vast" novel filled with the "raw beauty" beautifully depicts an idyllic commune in New York State -- and charts its eventual yet inevitable downfall (Janet Maslin, The New York Times). NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Timeless and vast... The raw beauty of Ms. Groff's prose is one of the best things about Arcadia. But it is by no means this book's only kind of splendor."---Janet Maslin, The New York Times "Even the most incidental details vibrate with life Arcadia wends a harrowing path back to a fragile, lovely place you can believe in."---Ron Charles, The Washington Post In the fields of western New York State in the 1970s, a few dozen idealists set out to live off the land, founding a commune centered on the grounds of a decaying mansion called Arcadia House. Arcadia follows this romantic utopian dream from its hopeful start through its heyday. Arcadia's inhabitants include Handy, the charismatic leader; his wife, Astrid, a midwife; Abe, a master carpenter; Hannah, a baker and historian; and Abe and Hannah's only child, Bit. While Arcadia rises and falls, Bit, too, ages and changes. He falls in love with Helle, Handy's lovely, troubled daughter. And eventually he must face the world beyond Arcadia. In Arcadia, Groff displays her literary gifts to stunning effect. "Fascinating."---People (****) "It's not possible to write any better without showing off."---Richard Russo, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Empire Falls "Dazzling."---Vogue

What’s to Love: Our long tradition of breaking new talent—like Rafael Albuquerque (The Savage Brothers, American Vampire), Emma Rios (Hexed, Pretty Deadly), and Declan Shalvey (28 Days Later, Moon Knight)—continues with the debut of Alex Paknadel and Eric Scott Pfeiffer, two new creators whose extensive world-building in the sci-fi thriller Arcadia evokes comparisons to epics like Game of Thrones, The Matrix, and Astro City. What It Is: When 99% of humankind is wiped out by a pandemic, four billion people are “saved” by being digitized at the brink of death and uploaded into Arcadia, a utopian simulation in the cloud. But when Arcadia begins to rapidly deplete the energy resources upon which the handful of survivors in the real world (aka “The Meat”) depends, how long will The Meat be able—and willing—to help? Collects the entire eight-issue series.

Anna Weamys's A Continuation of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia is 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's Arcadia is 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 first appearance of the text since the seventeenth century, this volume includes both a modernized and an old-spelling edition of the text.

SINCE BEING "DISCOVERED " IN 1767, Tahiti has faced a profound cultural upheaval. From the start, she has been branded with the irresistible dual myth of the Noble Savage's harmonious Arcadian life and of the vahine's amorous favours freely granted. People (navigators, missionaries, whalers, slavers) and events (deadly epidemics, atomic testing, and now tourism), all have contributed over time to creating the modern Tahitian quandary: trying to recover an idealized past and losing the benefits of modern life, or continuing as a cog in the French administrative system and losing her soul. Based on historical records, sailors' journals, Ma'ohi epic poetry, European paintings, folkloric events, the film industry, and novels by modern Tahitian writers, this book follows the passage from Otaheite's paradisal way of life, through the disastrous encounter with European civilization, ending with French Polynesia's modern prospects. Most remarkable of all is the enduring Ma'ohi culture's survival into the twenty-first century.