Blue bandReady now · Open and print today

Pericles

From Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by E. Nesbit, 1907

This reader is drawn from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, a 1907 collection by E. Nesbit (author of The Railway Children) that retold twenty Shakespeare plays for young readers. Pericles, one of Shakespeare's late romances, follows a king through loss, wandering, and miraculous reunion. The play itself draws on ancient Greek romance and was likely written around 1607–1608. Nesbit's retellings introduced a generation of children to Shakespeare's plots and characters, balancing faithful storytelling with accessible prose. A few period terms ('thou', 'whence') have been modernised. This story is worth a reader's time because it shows how suffering and separation test character, and how hope and love endure even when all seems lost. This text reflects its era.

Band

Blue · Independent readers, confidentTypical starting range: ages 12–14

Length

long · about 1057 words in 5 sections · 2 pictures

Source

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, E. Nesbit and William Shakespeare

First published

1907

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

Report a concern about this reader · What’s in a HummingRead reader