Author(s): William Shakespeare

Classic Fiction

Pericles was Shakespeare's first full-blown tragicomedy, the precursor to The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline and The Tempest, and one of his most popular plays in the seventeenth century. This Penguin edition is edited by Eugene Giddens. 'One sin, I know, another doth provoke; Murder's as near to lust as flame to smoke.' Pericles, Prince of Tyre, must solve a riddle in order to marry the daughter of the King of Antioch, or be put to death. But when the answer reveals a horrific secret, the young man faces his greatest dilemma. Danger and adventure follow as Pericles flees the city to find his fortune elsewhere, in a romantic drama of families lost and reunited, evil punished and virtue rewarded. This book contains a general introduction to Shakespeare's life and Elizabethan theatre, a separate introduction to Pericles, a chronology, suggestions for further reading, an essay discussing performance options on both stage and screen, and a commentary. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. He wrote about 38 plays (the precise number is uncertain), many of which are regarded as the most exceptional works of drama ever produced, including Romeo and Juliet (1595), Henry V (1599), Hamlet (1601), Othello (1604), King Lear (1606) and Macbeth (1606), as well as a collection of 154 sonnets, which are among the most profound and influential love poetry in English. Eugene Giddens is Skinner-Young Professor in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at Anglia Ruskin University.