Product Description
This book provides thirteen introductory essays on every aspect of the work of Samuel Beckett, paying particular attention to his most famous plays (e.g. Waiting for Godot and Endgame) and his prose fictions (e.g. the "trilogy" and Murphy). Further essays tackle his radio and television drama, his theater directing and his poetry, followed by more general issues such as Beckett's bilingualism and his relationship to the philosophers. A chronology of Beckett's life, a list of French and English titles and a list for further reading provide additional reference material. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Informative
Informative and interesting, giving a range of perspectives of many different writers critiquing Beckett's work.

A useful and stimulating collection of articles.
When it comes to Beckett, there are two schools of thought as to how to approach him for the first time. Some feel that we should just plunge in unprepared. Others feel that his writing is so strange and original that a certain amount of preparation is advisable before taking the plunge. But on the principle that two or more heads are better than one, there can be no-one whose understanding, after having read Beckett, will not be deepened and enhanced by reading what at least some of Beckett's many sensitive, intelligent, and informed readers have to say about his work.

The present collection is a fitting addition to the distinguished Cambridge series of Companions and contains thirteen pieces which cover all aspects of Beckett's work: the essays (Proust); the early English fiction (Murphy, Watt); the trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable) and four nouvelles; Waiting for Godot and Endgame; Krapp's Last Tape to Play; Texts for Nothing and How It Is; the radio and television plays and Film; the 'dramaticules'; the Residua to Stirring Still; Beckkett's poems and verse translations; Beckett as director; Beckett's bilingualism; Beckett and the philosophers. The book also contains a Chronology of Beckett's life; detailed topical bibliographies accompanying each essay; a useful guide to Further Reading; an Index of works by Beckett; and a General Index. Physically the book is well-printed on excellent paper, and bound in a sturdy glossy wrapper.

Of the thirteen essays, which are of varying merit, I was particularly impressed by three - Paul Davies on the trilogy; H. Porter Abbott on How It Is (with his insightful analysis of how the poetic prose of this book works to generate multiple meanings as we read); and P. J. Murphy's leraned treatment of Beckett and the philosophers - though most of the other essays are well worth reading and add considerably to our understanding of this deep and enigmatic writer. Happily only three of the book's contributors were so balefully under the influence of French theory as to have given us pieces which are not so much about Beckett as about themselves, and which will be of interest only to those who are interested in 'Beckett Studies' as opposed to Beckett himself.

All in all, then, this is a useful and stimulating collection of essays which ought to be of considerable interest to most serious students of Beckett, and as such it may be strongly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
A radical new reading of Samuel Beckett, by the author ofThe World Republic of Letters.In this fascinating new exploration of Samuel Beckett's work, Pascale Casanova argues that Beckett's reputation rests on a pervasive misreading of his oeuvre, which neglects entirely the literary revolution he instigated. Reintroducing the historical into the heart of this body of work, Casanova provides an arresting portrait of Beckett as radically subversive – doing for writing what Kandinsky did for art – and in the process presents the key to some of the most profound enigmas of Beckett's writing. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Great, Beautiful, Incomplete
This is a great collection of Beckett's novels, including: Murphy, Watt, and Mercier and Camier.

Noticeably missing--and noted by Paul Auster in the editor's note--is Dream of Fair to Middling Women, published post-humously. This probably points to a rights issue with the Beckett estate, but that's conjecture.

Auster notes that Beckett's "reputation rests" on the work included in this collection and I would have to agree. He also writes that this collection isnot a Collected Works, so Grove and Auster have covered their backs in missing a few works (mostly in French) here and there.

This collection includes corrections to grammar and typographical errors made in the original publications and was overseen by Auster and other leaders in the field.

All-in-all: Beckett fans will not be disappointed by this beautiful set and it makes for a great introduction for people new to his works.

Read, share, repeat. ... Read more

Product Description
Samuel Beckett's celebrated early study of Marcel proust, whose theories of time were to play a large part in his own work, was written in 1931. It is a brilliant work of critical insight that also tells us much about its author's own thinking and preoccupations. In its own right it is a masterpiece of literary and philosophical creative writing. This edition was published in 1999 - ten years after the writer's death.The volume also contains the equally celebrated dialogues with the art critic Georges Duthuit - written to record their different points of view after the discussions took place. Beckett always let Duthuit win, but his very unusual and often opposite point of view on the nature and purpose of art is all the more forceful and memorable on that account. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A masterful study of Proust's "In Search of Lost Time"
Samuel Beckett's text on Marcel Proust's work was published in 1931, when Beckett was 25 years old. Even though it was written before Beckett had reached his "mature" phase, this is a brilliant piece of criticism. Beckett's close reading (see, for example,his detailed list of the eleven points of departure for Proust's involuntary memory) is supplemented by deep analysis - not "cheap flashy philosophical jargon". Though focused on his discussion of Proust, Beckett also shares with us numerous aphorisms of wider import (e.g. "Habit is the ballast that chains the dog to his vomit.").

Also included in this volume are the famous three dialogues between Beckett and Georges Duthuit (1949). In them, Beckett states his opinion on artistic creation: "The expression that there is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express". Duthuit's conception of art seems to be much more traditional, and the dialogues sometimes (supposedly) become heated.

A word of advice: it makes much more sense instead of buying this edition to buy Volume IV (Poems, Short Fiction, Criticism) of the Grove Centenary Edition of Samuel Beckett's works, since both texts ("Marcel Proust" & "Three Dialogues") are contained therein.

Alexandros Gezerlis

On of the best works on Proust, ever
One of the best studies ever written about Proust's novel is also one of the earliest.Beckett's reading underscores the novel's pessimism--the bleak futility of human relations, the stupifying effects of Habit, the"poisonous ingenuity" of Time--yet is itself a brisk, erudite,hilarious, dark, and exhilarating piece of Modernist literary criticism.

A brilliantly constructed and movingly written book.
Beckett's 'Proust' is a powerful and revelatory work, largely because itanalyses not only the writing of Marcel Proust but also perception itself:the literary high. It can only enrich the reader's life. I'd recommend itto anyone. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

How odd.
I'm relatively new to Beckett, and so my only point of comparison is "Waiting for Godot". Look elsewhere if you want more of the majesty and humor of that work, but "The Lost Ones" does have its own charm.

Give Beckett credit, he creates a world of his own, and unpacks it in exhaustive and minute detail. The complex social patterns that develop among the pitiable inhabitants is perhaps of greatest interest. All of this is described in Beckett's characteristically dense prose.

Despite being serendipitously timed and thus receiving the Nobel Prize for literature, "The Lost Ones" is not itself a major work. Whether this particular experiment is enjoyable to you is probably a matter of taste, but it does have the advantage of brevity; like a Ramones song, if you don't like it, it'll at least be over before you know it.

Entropy and the vanquished.
This short and unusual novel by Samuel Beckett, winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature (this book was the first major puplication of Beckett after the award was announced), depicts a "universe" that is made up of aflattened cylinder fifty meters wide and eighteen meters high containing200 bodies of all ages. The insides of the cylinder are basicly featurelessexcept for a few niches that can be reached by a few ladders (these laddersare the only inanimate objects in the cylinder). Some of these niches areinterconnected by tunnels. The cylinder is lit slightly by a dim yellowlight that is everywhere. The temperature changes from 25 degrees to zeroin four seconds and then back again. Some of the people are searchers andare looking for an exit. Others are the vanquished. As time goes on, allbecome the vanquished except one. When I came to the end of the novel, allI could think of was entropy.

Concise and claustrophobic
This is a very short work, but meaningful.I won't try to give a description of it, for that would be thoroughly useless and not do justice to the work.I will say that it is a must for fans of Kafka, and evenexistentialist writing in general. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Beckett poems and literature
An inspiration for my writing and my creativity, and I could never dare emulate him well enough.But
what a wonderful book and an excellent time to share with friends and family.I highly recommend it in
every way.I am so glad that I purchased this product and have nothing but praise for his great poetry
which I used in common correspondence immediately. ... Read more

Product Description
2006 marks the 100th anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s birth. To most, he was a brilliant artist who shied away from celebrity and photographers, but to the distinguished painter Avigdor Arikha and his wife, author Anne Atik, Beckett was the close friend with whom they shared countless drinks, meals, and rich conversations. As intimates and artists, they interacted with him several times a week for over four decades. In 1970, Atik began jotting down notes on her relationship with Beckett. "After fifteen years of memorable conversations with Beckett," she writes, "I realized that I could not depend on my memory. The unforgettable was becoming the irretrievable." The three could just as easily discuss their personal lives as ponder the state of art. This book documents not only Beckett’s passions, but is filled with drawings by Arikha, snapshots, and letters. There are also drafts in Beckett’s own handwriting that would eventually become part of his formidable canon, covering the breadth of his knowledge of literature by detailing his opinions and influences. An intimate collage, How It Was offers a unique insider’s portrait and gives the reader a chance to sit down with one of the great literary masters of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

"a sympathetically observed memoir"
An intimate portrayal of a great and private man. Ms. Atik talks of the many dinner conversations they had, mostly between her husband Avigdor Arikha and Beckett. The conversations revolve mostly around art and literary topics, with the two reciting long poems from memory.

What astounds the reader is how prodigious Beckett's recall is; the copious amounts of wine consumed by the man didn't seem to affect his great literary and artistic memories. From his lifetime of reading erudite texts, he can recite entire poems. This is truly an amazing man.

Atik's text is interspersed with nine portraits of Beckett by Arikha, along with many letters and snippets of text in Beckett's longhand. Also there are some photos of Atik's family and scenes from a couple of the Beckett dramas.

This is a remarkable book, one that supplies an intimate side of Beckett that isn't found in the DAMNED TO FAME biography. Must reading for those taken with the life of this literary giant.

Parataxis

The Cloud Reckoner

Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

Princeton reader
At this point, given the reviews, it is clear that Anne Atik has written a fine memoir. What I would like to comment on in particular is the role she herself plays as both writer and actor. She manages to be remarkably self-effacing, something not at all easy for a writer who was a close friend of a famous artist. There is no tone of bragging, there are no self-serving anecdotes, and there are minimal details about the memoirist herself. In fact, if anything, I found myself wanting to know a bit more about her. But her discretion is admirable.

A must for anyone interested in Beckett
This is a revealing, insightful portrayal of the great Irish writer, by a close friend of his, the poet Anne Atik, wife of the painter Avigdor Arikha, whose striking portraits of Beckett are reproduced here. The book is unique for its descriptions of, and insights into the springs of artistic creation, for the refined 'table talk' it lovingly and discretely recounts, for the details that only a friend could know and see so well - all told by a poet. This is definitely a must for Beckett fans and lovers of literature.

A must for Beckett fans!
This memoir is what we hope for. Lots of new information, inside anecdotes, and pictures.

If you love Beckett you must have this book.I would've gone without meals to buy it, if necessary.

Also be sure to buy Why Beckett, by Enoch Brater. It is magical.

i love this book



This book ( How it was)

well,... it was amazing.

I am so glad I bought it.

I was in cafes with Beckett....

( no other book can do that)

I wondered for a long time whether I should buy it...

I'm glad I did..


What a wonderful book!

if you love Beckett ... Read more

Product Description
Samuel Beckett directed "Krapp's Last Tape" on four separate occasions, and this volume offers a facsimile of his 1969 Schiller-Theater notebook. The notebook contains what is probably some of the most explicit analysis by Beckett of his own work ever revealed. The revised text incorporates many of the changes Beckett made in the 1969 Schiller production, as well as subsequent changes in later productions. Professor Knowlson worked closely with Beckett over these revisions - and deviations from the original are noted and explained in detail. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Illustrious Beckett Reveals Himself
An essential tool for anyone interesting in producing Samuel Beckett'sfull-length play, Happy Days, this production notebook serves as anexplanation to not only the author's sometimes unrecognized references andsources as well as difficulties with the technical elements of production(for example, how the original production coped with the necessity for aflaming parasol).Even if one is not looking to produce Happy Days for thestage, Beckett's production notebook is a great insight into the characterWinnie, whose intelligence is equivocal to Beckett's own and draws (oftenwithout the reader's knowledge, save for this notebook) from Keats,Browning, and Shakespeare. Reading the author's notes on both the play as apiece of literature and as a theatrical event also gives one a betterunderstanding of Beckett as playwright and as an imminent literary figureof the twentieth century. True scholars of Beckett will also enjoy thecopies of handwritten notes, transcribed into type on adjoining pages. Thisnotebook is a perfect tool for dramaturgy or for simply gaining a betterunderstanding of this Beckettian masterpiece. ... Read more

Product Description
In this Readers' Guide, Peter Boxall traces critical responses to Waiting for Godot and Endgame from the 1950s to the present day. The guide presents the major debates that surround these works as they develop, from Martin Esslin's early appropriation of the plays as examples of the Theatre of the Absurd, to recent poststructuralist and postcolonial readings by critics such as Steven Connor, Mary Bryden and Declan Kiberd. Throughout, Boxall clarifies and contextualizes critical responses to the plays, and considers the difficult relationship between Beckett and his critics.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

I can't go on.I'll go on.
God-(ot) never comes. The waiting for the God-(ot) who never is going to come is endless.But still the hanging tree / cross is there.You can hang yourself on it.Or not.He still won't come.

The garbage cans are supposed to symbolize skulls.How people are trapped inside their skulls and how the potential for getting out of your skull and really being understood by another human being who is trapped inside his or her skull is futile.

Waiting and Waiting and Waiting and ...
Waiting and Waiting and Waiting and ...

Review of Play: Waiting for Godot - A Tragicomedy in Two Acts

Written in:1949

Premiere in:1953

By:Samuel Beckett (1906 - 1989)

Originally written in French and translated to English by the author himself.

This play takes place on a desolate road next to a barren tree. There are two aimless men loitering and passing the time in discussion.They are soon joined by two others.The first act of the play lasts through one evening.The second act lasts through a second evening almost identical to the first.When ever the subject of leaving their spot arises, we learn that they can't leave because they are "Waiting for Godot" and need to stay at this particular spot on the road.

There is a sense of timelessness.The second evenings (second act) seems to be slightly altered copy of the first evening (first act).The characters are "Waiting for Godot" and for salvation.Their wait for salvation might well be endless since all of them are loath to face their true motives, their real needs, their personal wants and honest desires.They don't seem to know why they are "Waiting for Godot" or what Godot (God?) will bring them.When they mention suicide they flippantly dismiss the subject.One time they say they can not hang themselves because they have no rope when in fact there is a rope lying on the stage as one of the few props.

They appear to have voluntarily subjected themselves to a purgatory and don't have the courage or initiative to even question their situation.

The discussion ranges from an inane account of boots being too tight to sophistic meanderings on the purpose of life.The characters seem to relentlessly keep talking to avoid facing something.We are not privy to any of their pasts or in fact any personal information about any of the characters.They might have been meeting on the desolate road for an endless time, so that any past that they had is lost in the mist of their memories.

The nearly barren tree reminds them of a hanging tree and by implication a crucifixion cross.The tree dominates the stage background just as Godot dominates the lives; free choice and every expression of the four main characters.Does the milieu force the characters to think of salvation to the exclusion of a meaningful life? Could their need for salvation keep them trapped in a purgative existence where escape would be a form of condemnation which none of them could tolerate?

The play "Waiting for Godot" forces the reader to ask questions of himself/herself.




Review of Play: Endgame

Premiere: 1957

By:Samuel Beckett (1906 - 1989)

The play "Endgame" is set in a single room with only four characters.The two main characters (Hamm and Clov) bicker throughout.The other two characters (Nagg and Nell) are in trash cans in the room and someone needs to life the lids to talk to them.Nagg and Nell are Hamm's parents.Outside of the room it seems that either the earth is uninhabited or else the outside world is entirely void.

Hamm (Hamlet?) is decrepit, blind and immobile.Hamm depends on Clov (Clown?) for everything.Clov serves him food and medicine and gives him warm covers.Clov serves Hamm grudgingly.

Although Nagg and Nell (Nag and Hell?) are Hamm's parents he shows no warmth or feeling toward them.They show no humanity or awareness of the world.There is no interaction between parent and child that would indicate human feeling.Nagg and Nell
(Nag and Hell?) are just stage props to reinforce the premise that time stopped passing and the universe is a void.Nell's death invokes no sense of loss making the audience wonder if she was really alive at the start or was her trash can actually an urn for her ashes.Perhaps the voices of Nagg and Nell are faded memories.



Waiting for Godot

Krapp's Last Tape

Endgame and Act Without Words




I completely enjoyed and highly recommend this book.


... Read more

Product Description

One of the most widely acclaimed plays of the 20th century, Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait for someone named Godot. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's premiere. The play is considered by some critics to be one of the most prominent works of the "Theatre of the Absurd". ... Read more

Product Description
Drawing on the theories of Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze to show the centrality of repetition in Beckett's work, the author explores the paradoxical forms and effects of repetition across a wide range of Beckett's texts, from the early fiction through to the most recent drama. Connor considers Beckett's translations ofhis own works (both to and from French and English), and Beckett's practice as a director of his own plays, and examines the way in which repetition functions within critical discourse to create and sustain the mythology that has grown up around Beckett's work. This reissue of Samuel Beckett, Repetition, Theory and Text (unavailable since the mid-1990s) has been subjected to a very detailed revision and adds a new, provocative preface by the author ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of essays - the first volume in the Dialogue series - brings together new and experienced scholars to present innovative critical approaches to Samuel Beckett's play Endgame. These essays broach a broad range of topics, many of which are inherently controversial and have generated significant levels of debate in the past. Critical readings of the play in relation to music, metaphysics, intertextuality, and time are counterpointed by essays that consider the nature of performance, the history of the theater and the music hall, Beckett's attitudes to directing his play, and his responses to other directors. This collection will be of special interest to Beckett scholars, to students of literature and drama, and to drama theorists and practitioners. ... Read more

Product Description
"Waiting for Godot," a tragicomedy in two acts, brought overnight fame to its 51-year-old Irish author. It has since been translated into Japanese, Swedish, Yugoslavian and many other languages, and has been produced throughout the world. It is "...one of the most noble and moving plays of our generation...", stated the London Times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Waiting and Waiting and Waiting and ...
Waiting and Waiting and Waiting and ...

Review of Play: Waiting for Godot - A Tragicomedy in Two Acts

Written in:1949

Premiere in:1953

By:Samuel Beckett (1906 - 1989)

Originally written in French and translated to English by the author himself.

This play takes place on a desolate road next to a barren tree. There are two aimless men loitering and passing the time in discussion.They are soon joined by two others.The first act of the play lasts through one evening.The second act lasts through a second evening almost identical to the first.When ever the subject of leaving their spot arises, we learn that they can't leave because they are "Waiting for Godot" and need to stay at this particular spot on the road.

There is a sense of timelessness.The second evenings (second act) seems to be slightly altered copy of the first evening (first act).The characters are "Waiting for Godot" and for salvation.Their wait for salvation might well be endless since all of them are loath to face their true motives, their real needs, their personal wants and honest desires.They don't seem to know why they are "Waiting for Godot" or what Godot (God?) will bring them.When they mention suicide they flippantly dismiss the subject.One time they say they can not hang themselves because they have no rope when in fact there is a rope lying on the stage as one of the few props.

They appear to have voluntarily subjected themselves to a purgatory and don't have the courage or initiative to even question their situation.

The discussion ranges from an inane account of boots being too tight to sophistic meanderings on the purpose of life.The characters seem to relentlessly keep talking to avoid facing something.We are not privy to any of their pasts or in fact any personal information about any of the characters.They might have been meeting on the desolate road for an endless time, so that any past that they had is lost in the mist of their memories.

The nearly barren tree reminds them of a hanging tree and by implication a crucifixion cross.The tree dominates the stage background just as Godot dominates the lives; free choice and every expression of the four main characters.Does the milieu force the characters to think of salvation to the exclusion of a meaningful life? Could their need for salvation keep them trapped in a purgative existence where escape would be a form of condemnation which none of them could tolerate?

The play "Waiting for Godot" forces the reader to ask questions of him/her self.



Waiting for Godot

Krapp's Last Tape

Endgame and Act Without Words



I completely enjoyed and highly recommend this book.


... Read more

Amazon.com Review
"The plain reader be damned," declared the young SamuelBeckett in an essay in Transition, the Parisian journal wheresome of his first poetry and prose appeared. Plain readers have beengrappling with Beckett's thorny, modernist work eversince. Some of the stories collected in Samuel Beckett: TheComplete Short Prose, 1929-1989 and its companion volume Nohow On:Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho: Three Novels seem almostapproachable, while such exercises in oddity as the 13 Texts forNothing seem more impenetrable by the day. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Exile and descent: a prose-world as dark as what it conceals
--When my life-routine is in decay only Samuel Beckett can suffice. While the poorest of Beckett's prose offer only that sunken cold-in-the-stomach feeling of literary indigestion (this may after all be the intended effect), the better segments deliver a richer vein of orchestral inflection, a chalk-and-charcoal tone-poetry of sorts, a lush groggy cipher-state dreaming with angst. The 1946 sequence of nouvelles that are the blessing of this collection ("First Love" "The Expelled" "The Calmative" "The End") are especially vital to this reader, which is to say that they reread the best.
--As one progresses through this volume, from the Joycean exuberance of "Assumption" and "Sedendo et Quiescendo", to the ashen zero-time of "Texts for Nothing" and "All Strange Away", to the bleached naked endurance of "Lessness" and "Stirrings Still", Beckett's narration seems to sink further and further into the mud, a breaking down of readerly expectation into a prose-world as dark as what it conceals.
--I recommend this anthology to patient readers in search of their own zero-hour, and as a startling companion-piece to the major novels and plays. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of original essays by a team of leading Beckett scholars and two of his biographers, Companion to Samuel Beckett provides a comprehensive critical reappraisal of the literary works of Samuel Beckett.

• Builds on the resurgence of international Beckett scholarship since the centenary of his birth, and reflects the wealth of newly released archival sources
  
• Informed by the latest in scholarly, critical, and theoretical debates
  
• A valuable addition to contemporary Beckett scholarship, and testament to the enduring influence of Beckett’s work and his position as one of the most important literary figures of our time

Product Description
Exiled in Paris provides a compelling look at the personalities who fueled the literary and philosophical dramas of postwar Paris: James Baldwin, Alexander Trocchi, Boris Vian, Maurice Girodias, and many others. James Campbell provides a fresh look at Samuel Beckett's early career; reveals the facts behind the publication of the scandalous best-seller The Story of O; and tells the poignant story of Richard Wright's years in exile. He captures the sense of deliverance that Wright, so accustomed to daily humiliations in his own country, experienced during his sojourn on the Left Bank, where, for the first time in his life, he was treated as a great man of letters. Here, too, are all the circumstances surrounding Wright's mysterious death, which many close to him regarded as suspicious. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Porn in Paris
I purchased this book expecting to learn more about famous ex-pat authors living in post WW2 Paris. Indeed, the first part of the book, which concentrated on Richard Wright and James Baldwin, fully met my expectations. However after that the book details in minute detail the development of pornographic literature (heterosexual and homosexual)in Paris - authors and publishers. At some point I had enough and abandoned ship. It was just too boring.

Fascinating reading
After the end of the Second World War, a number of African Americans,including many of our most talented intellectuals, decided that America wasjust not a sufficiently hospitable home.Those who could left for Europe. Many, landed in Paris, which provided a far more civilizedsociety.

Literary giants like James Baldwin, Richard Wright and otherintellectuals found a place where their worth was determined by things moresignificant than skin color.This is the story of theirexperiences.

Another book worth searching for. ... Read more