diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r-ellipse/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r-ellipse/package.py
index 7d7a7b2c12..bbb1684d2f 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r-ellipse/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r-ellipse/package.py
@@ -7,13 +7,20 @@
 
 
 class REllipse(RPackage):
-    """This package contains various routines for drawing ellipses and
-    ellipse-like confidence regions."""
+    """Functions for Drawing Ellipses and Ellipse-Like Confidence Regions
+
+    Contains various routines for drawing ellipses and ellipse-like confidence
+    regions, implementing the plots described in Murdoch and Chow (1996), A
+    graphical display of large correlation matrices, The American Statistician
+    50, 178-180. There are also routines implementing the profile plots
+    described in Bates and Watts (1988), Nonlinear Regression Analysis and its
+    Applications."""
 
     homepage = "https://cloud.r-project.org/package=ellipse"
     url      = "https://cloud.r-project.org/src/contrib/ellipse_0.3-8.tar.gz"
     list_url = "https://cloud.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/ellipse"
 
+    version('0.4.2', sha256='1719ce9a00b9ac4d56dbf961803085b892d3359726fda3567bb989ddfed9a5f2')
     version('0.4.1', sha256='1a9a9c52195b26c2b4d51ad159ab98aff7aa8ca25fdc6b2198818d1a0adb023d')
     version('0.3-8', sha256='508d474c142f0770c25763d6c8f8f8c9dcf8205afd42ffa22e6be1e0360e7f45')