The Cenci

About this book

The Cenci was a verse drama written in the summer of 1819 by Percy Bysshe Shelley. It was inspired by a real Italian family, the Cencis (especially Beatrice Cenci). Due to its theme of incest the play was considered unperformable in its day , and it was not performed in London until 1922. Later it was included in the Harvard Classics as one of the most important and representative works of the western canon