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.