本书是英文原版小说，这部小说是莎士比亚后期的喜剧作品，这部剧情复杂的作品主要叙述嫉妒成性的专制君主利翁提斯怀疑他的女儿是私生女，狠心将还在襁褓中的女儿弃之门外，他的妻子荷美温妮在悲伤中死去，从此利翁提斯过着懊悔与悲伤的日子。牧羊人收养了利翁提斯抛弃的女儿，此女长大后经过重重波折终于回到利翁提斯身边，哀恸死去的王后荷美温妮其实也是假死，最后一家人团圆以喜剧收场。

The Winter"s Tale is a multi-faceted romance that stands alongside The Tempest as one of Shakespeare"s most sophisticated comedies.Like The Tempest (and, indeed, Pericles) the unity of time is defied to an almost magical extent as the heroine, Perdita,grows from a child to womanhood before our eyes. The tragicearly events in the first part of the play are transformed into afeast of reconciliation, that quality which marks Shakespeare"s later plays. The text of this edition is taken from the Cambridge University Press New Shakespeare, edited by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and John Dover Wilson.