Pericles

William Shakespeare’s Pericles is a drama first published in 1609. William Shakespeare uses the form to consider conflict, performance, public speech, and the pressures that expose character, keeping the emphasis on how ideas become choices, conflicts, and consequences. Rather than depending on topical novelty, the book builds its interest through the interaction of character, situation, and idea. The book’s distinctive character comes from a dialogue-driven form whose tensions unfold through voice, gesture, and confrontation. At roughly 20,043 words with an easy reading profile, it offers a reading commitment that is easy to judge before beginning while still leaving room for close attention. The work remains relevant through its life both on the page and in performance. The result is a book that rewards readers who enjoy dialogue-driven form whose tensions unfold through voice, gesture, and confrontation while leaving room for reflection after the final page. Because the work leaves space for judgment rather than reducing its ideas to a simple lesson, different readers may find different points of emphasis within it.