Waiting for Godot


Book Description

From an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone in 1953, followed by bewilderment among American and British audiences, Waiting for Godot has become of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama. As Clive Barnes wrote, “Time catches up with genius … Waiting for Godot is one of the masterpieces of the century.” The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone—or something—named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree, inhabiting a drama spun of their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as mankind’s inexhaustible search for meaning. Beckett’s language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existential post-World War II Europe. His play remains one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time.




En Attendant Godot


Book Description

In honor of the centenary of Samuel Beckett's birth, this bilingual edition of "Waiting for Godot" features side-by-side text in French and English so readers can experience the mastery of Beckett's language and explore the nuances of his creativity.




The Making of Samuel Beckett's 'Molloy'


Book Description

Originally published in French in 1951 and translated into English by the author himself four years later, Molloy is the first novel of Samuel Beckett's Trilogy, continued in Malone Dies and The Unnamable. The Making of Samuel Beckett's 'Molloy' is a comprehensive reference guide to the history of the text. The book includes: A complete descriptive catalogue of available relevant manuscripts, including French and English texts, alternative drafts and notebook pages A critical reconstruction of the history of the history of the text, from its genesis through the process of composition to its full publication history A detailed guide to exploring the manuscripts online at the Beckett Digital Manuscripts Project at www.beckettarchive.org This volume is part of the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project (BDMP), a collaboration between the Centre for Manuscript Genetics (University of Antwerp, Belgium), the Beckett International Foundation (University of Reading, UK) and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre (University of Texas at Austin, USA), with the support of the Estate of Samuel Beckett.




Beckett: Waiting for Godot


Book Description

This volume offers a comprehensive critical study of Samuel Beckett's first and most renowned dramatic work, Waiting for Godot, which has become one of the most frequently discussed, and influential plays in the history of the theatre. Lawrence Graver discusses the play's background and provides a detailed analysis of its originality and distinction as a landmark of modern theatrical art. He reviews some of the differences between Beckett's original French version and his English translation.




Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett, New Edition


Book Description

Presents a series of critical essays discussing the structure, themes, and subject matter of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.




The Cambridge Companion to Beckett


Book Description

The world fame of Samuel Beckett is due to a combination of high academic esteem and immense popularity. An innovator in prose fiction to rival Joyce, his plays have been the most influential in modern theatre history. As an author in both English and French and a writer for the page and the stage, Beckett has been the focus for specialist treatment in each of his many guises, but there have been few attempts to provide a conspectus view. This book, first published in 1994, provides thirteen introductory essays on every aspect of Beckett's work, some 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). Other essays tackle his radio and television drama, his theatre directing and his poetry, followed by more general issues such as Beckett's bilingualism and his relationship to the philosophers. Reference material is provided at the front and back of the book.




How it is


Book Description

This work relates the adventures of an unnamed narrator crawling through the mud while dragging a sack of canned food. It is written as a sequence of unpunctuated paragraphs divided into three sections.




Watt


Book Description

In prose possessed of the radically stripped-down beauty and ferocious wit that characterize his work, this early novel by Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett recounts the grotesque and improbable adventures of a fantastically logical Irish servant and his master. Watt is a beautifully executed black comedy that, at its core, is rooted in the powerful and terrifying vision that made Beckett one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.




The New Samuel Beckett Studies


Book Description

Discusses the most recent advances in the Beckett field and the new methods used to approach it.




On Beckett


Book Description

“On Beckett: Essays and Criticism” is the first collection of writings about the Nobel Prize–winning author that covers the entire spectrum of his work, and also affords a rare glimpse of the private Beckett. More has been written about Samuel Beckett than about any other writer of this century – countless books and articles dealing with him are in print, and the progression continues geometrically. “On Beckett” brings together some of the most perceptive writings from the vast amount of scrutiny that has been lavished on the man; in addition to widely read essays there are contributions from more obscure sources, viewpoints not frequently seen. Together they allow the reader to enter the world of a writer whose work has left an impact on the consciousness of our time perhaps unmatched by that of any other recent creative imagination.