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.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"[C]onsideration of individual plays and the chapter on Beckett as director covers most that you want to know....[T]his is a terrific book." Small Press
"The authors constitute a distinguished group of international scholars, all of whom have published important work on Beckett...The essays are lucid and, though authoritative, not esoteric...The collection is meant for the general reader of Beckett and is highly recommended for all libraries." Choice
"In a relatively small space it provides a wealth of information about Beckett's oeuvre, and much that is of potential interest to the expert as well as to the newcomer." Roger Caldwell, Times Literary Supplement
"The authors constitute a distinguished group of international scholars, all of whom have published important work on Beckett...The essays are lucid and, though authoritative, not esoteric...The collection is meant for the general reader of Beckett and is highly recommended for all libraries." Choice
"In a relatively small space it provides a wealth of information about Beckett's oeuvre, and much that is of potential interest to the expert as well as to the newcomer." Roger Caldwell, Times Literary Supplement
Book Description
Thirteen introductory essays cover every aspect of Samuel Beckett's work, paying particular attention to his most famous plays (e.g. Waiting for Godot and Endgame), his prose fictions (e.g. the "trilogy" and Murphy), as well as his radio and television drama, theater directing and poetry.
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A useful and stimulating collection of articles.,
This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to Beckett (Cambridge Companions to Literature) (Paperback)
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.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Informative,
By DOROTHY (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to Beckett (Cambridge Companions to Literature) (Paperback)
Informative and interesting, giving a range of perspectives of many different writers critiquing Beckett's work.
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First Sentence:
Whilst it is easy to see where Beckett's discursive writing begins, it is difficult to see where, or how, it ends. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
ill seen ill, long sonata, rip word, discursive writing, last tape, ideal core, dead imagine, later prose, real silence, taped voice Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Samuel Beckett, New York, Modern Drama, John Pilling, John Calder, John Fletcher, Princeton University Press, Cambridge University Press, Editions de Minuit, James Knowlson, Ruby Cohn, Colin Smythe, Grove Press, Martin Esslin, Gerrards Cross, Beckett's English, Georges Duthuit, Lawrence Harvey, Oxford University Press, Sylvie Debevec, Alan Schneider, Bram van Velde, Reconstructing Beckett, Steven Connor, Billie Whitelaw New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Whilst it is easy to see where Beckett's discursive writing begins, it is difficult to see where, or how, it ends. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
ill seen ill, long sonata, rip word, discursive writing, last tape, ideal core, dead imagine, later prose, real silence, taped voice Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Samuel Beckett, New York, Modern Drama, John Pilling, John Calder, John Fletcher, Princeton University Press, Cambridge University Press, Editions de Minuit, James Knowlson, Ruby Cohn, Colin Smythe, Grove Press, Martin Esslin, Gerrards Cross, Beckett's English, Georges Duthuit, Lawrence Harvey, Oxford University Press, Sylvie Debevec, Alan Schneider, Bram van Velde, Reconstructing Beckett, Steven Connor, Billie Whitelaw New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 51
books:
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100
books
cite this book:
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- Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts by Samuel Beckett on 17 pages
- How It Is by Samuel Beckett on 13 pages
- Samuel Beckett (Twayne's English Authors Series, No. 423) by Linda Ben-Zvi on 10 pages
- Samuel Beckett (British and Irish Authors) by Andrew Karpati Kennedy on 6 pages
- Samuel Beckett: A biography (A Harvest/HBJ book) by Deirdre Bair on 5 pages
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- After Beckett / D'apres Beckett (Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui 14) by Sjef Houppermans on 4 pages
- The Ethics of Modernism: Moral Ideas in Yeats, Eliot, Joyce, Woolf and Beckett by Lee Oser in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Samuel Beckett: A Casebook (Casebooks on Modern Dramatists) by Jennifer M. Jeffers on page 62, page 109, and page 249
- Samuel Beckett's Theatre: Life-Journeys by Katharine Worth in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Chronoschisms: Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism (Literature, Culture, Theory) by Ursula K. Heise on page 165, and Back Matter
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