Pericles The New Oxford Shakespeare

'Born in a tempest when my mother died! This world to me is as a lasting storm.' Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a tale of adventure, fateful journeys, true love, and marvels. The play recycles a millennia-old story of a prince who sails around a mythic Mediterranean, starts a family, loses his wife and daughter, and is miraculously reunited with them years later. It packs in exciting incidents, from shipwreck to storms to murder, and a colourful cast of characters including knights, assassins, pirates, brothelkeepers, and the goddess of chastity. Written by Shakespeare and George Wilkins, Pericles capitalises on the seventeenth-century vogue for tragicomic romance and it proved to be a hit on the stage and in print. In the twenty-first century, Pericles has again surged in popularity. Inspiring novels by bestselling writers and theatrical adaptations around the globe, this ancient story is used to explore contemporary concerns such as displacement, the treatment of women, the abuse of authority, and the persistence of hope in the face of tragedy. The New Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative editions of Shakespeare's works with introductory materials designed to encourage new interpretations of the plays and poems. Using the text from the landmark The New Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition, these volumes offer readers the latest thinking on the authentic texts (collated from all surviving original versions of Shakespeare's work) alongside innovative introductions from leading scholars. The texts are accompanied by a comprehensive set of critical apparatus to give readers the best resources to help understand and enjoy Shakespeare's work. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Edel Semple is Senior Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies, University College Cork. She is co-editing The Palgrave Handbook of Shakespearean Biofiction (2026) and has co-edited the collections Shakespearean Biofiction on the Contemporary Stage and Screen (2023), Staged Normality in Shakespeare's England (2019), and Staged Transgression in Shakespeare's England (2013). Rory Loughnane is Reader in Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent. He is the author or editor of ten books and has published widely on Shakespeare. For the New Oxford Shakespeare, he has edited more than ten of Shakespeare's plays. He is a Series Editor of Studies in Early Modern Authorship and Shakespeare and Text, and a General Editor of The Revels Plays series and the forthcoming Oxford Marlowe edition.