Audiobook · read by volunteers
Astrophil and Stella
Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)
Read by Elizabeth Klett · 5 chapters · 2 h 14
About the book
Astrophil, the star-lover, is hopelessly in love with Stella, the star, and his love brings him far more torment than hope. Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnet sequence, among the first great ones in English, follows this frustrated passion through more than a hundred poems written in the early 1580s, mixing wit, anguish, praise and self-mockery. The speaker argues with his own heart, with Cupid and with the rules of poetry itself, and the voice that results feels remarkably personal. It is likely that Sidney drew on his own life for the figure of Stella. The recording is divided into five parts, covering the sonnets in groups of thirty and the remainder, and is read by one LibriVox volunteer in around two hours and fifteen minutes. A fine introduction to Elizabethan love poetry.
Introduction
Sir Philip Sidney, who lived from 1554 to 1586, was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and the author of the prose romance Arcadia and of the treatise The Defence of Poesy, and one of the most admired figures of Elizabethan England. He died young, after being wounded in battle, and much of his writing was published only after his death. Astrophil and Stella, which appeared in print in 1591, was among those works.
It is a sonnet sequence, and Sidney's example helped to set off the fashion for such sequences in English. Its hero Astrophil, whose name means star-lover, loves in vain the lady Stella, whose name means star. It is likely that Sidney based the figure of Stella on a real woman of his acquaintance, although the exact nature of the relationship is a matter for scholars. The poems alternate between declarations, complaints, jests and reflections on writing itself, and they helped to inspire the later vogue for sonnets in the 1590s.
The language is that of the sixteenth century, and some of its conventions, such as the beloved’s cruelty and the lover’s despair, may seem remote, but the best sonnets speak directly and vividly. Hearing them aloud helps, since the sound and rhythm are part of their charm.
The recording is arranged in five parts: the sonnets numbered 1 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 84, 85 to 90 and 91 to 108. A single LibriVox volunteer reads it all, in just over two hours. Today it is worth hearing as a foundation of English love poetry and as a rewarding encounter with Sidney’s mind.
Public domain
Sir Philip Sidney died in 1586: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text