Thwarting the wayward seas

In this study, historian David Skeele offers a lively and fascinating account of the checkered past of Pericles, one of the strangest and most controversial plays in the Shakespearean canon. Alternating chapters on criticism and stage production, Skeele takes particular aim at the issue of unity versus fragmentation, a theme that pervades nearly all discussions of the play. He begins with an analysis of the Victorian critic's rancor toward Pericles, examining the scientist-critic's disintegrative attacks on the play's authorship (as well as his paternal protection of its lovely and helpless heroine Marina) and the eventual attainment of its slippery foothold in the canon. The book next moves to a consideration of the treatment of Pericles on the Victorian stage, contrasting Samuel Phelps's anomalous, record-breaking production at Sadler's Wells in 1854 to John Coleman's decidedly less-successful staging at Stratford in 1900. Skeele then looks at stage production of the play during the greater part of the twentieth century, contrasting two trends in Pericles production: the spectacular approach (a la Phelps) and the spare, stripped-down treatments initially inspired by Poel and Granville-Barker's rebellions against Victorian excess. Finally, Skeele blends critical and production history, examining Pericles in light of recent trends in poststructuralist criticism and postmodern staging.