The World of Samuel Beckett, 1906-1946 [Paperback]

Professor Lois Gordon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 1998

Samuel Beckett has long been identified with the debilitated and impotent characters he created. In this provocative book, Lois Gordon offers a new perspective on Beckett, challenging the prevalent image of him as reclusive, self-absorbed, and disturbed. Gordon investigates the first forty. years of Beckett's life and finds that he was, on the contrary, a kind and generous man who responded sensitively and even heroically to the world around him.

"Through a rich biographical and historical reconstruction, Lois Gordon illuminates Beckett's formative years, the years before the great work, that we may see him as fully responsive to the harsh realities of his time. This is a work generously conceived to undo the myth of a dour and distant Beckett and replace it with the full dimension of the man". -- Maureen Howard

"Gordon places Beckett's life firmly in its historical context, both artistic and political. What she unearths about Beckett's involvement in the French Resistance and with the Red Cross at Saint-Lo in 1945 is particularly persuasive and illuminating -- and finally very moving". -- Harold Pinter

"An illuminating, and immensely warm study". -- New York Review of Books

"Gordon significantly extends the scholarship about her subject.... An exemplary glimpse of a literary enigma". -- Kirkus

"For any evaluation of Beckett's temperament and achievement, The World of Samuel Beckett provides invaluable information and balance.... Gordon has provided a 'missing link' in the saga of one of the West's greatest writers". -- Kimball King, Modern Drama

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Gordon's treatment of the modernist master and author of Waiting for Godot is less harsh than the influential 1978 biography by Deirdre Bair, in which Beckett was represented as neurotic, cold, and hermitic. Gordon's study presents Beckett as an alert, even compassionate observer of his times and an heir to the Great Tradition of literary heavyweights. Much of the book focuses on the times rather than the life, summarizing political and intellectual history. Beckett once said that while James Joyce worked toward "omniscience and omnipotence as an artist," he himself worked from "impotence, ignorance." Gordon's work belies that modesty. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Gordon, professor of English and comparative literature at Fairleigh Dickinson University, looks at the circumstances that shaped Beckett's writing. She begins with Beckett's native city, Dublin, how he viewed it as a Protestant among Catholics and the effect the Irish Rising of 1916-1922 had on him. She discusses Beckett's life in Paris during the 1920s and his relationship with James Joyce. She paints a pleasant portrait of Joyce the family man and artist; considers Beckett's friendship with Jack Yeats, the poet's brother; and recounts Beckett's time in London during the early 1930s. The most gripping chapters are about the WW II occupation of France and Beckett's heroic role in the Resistance, which was inspired, according to the author, by the spirit of the great Irish revolutionary Michael Collins. Although there are annoying inaccuracies (e.g., Joyce and Irish politician Eamon DeValera do not, as the author claims, share the same birthday), this meticulously footnoted bio serves as a sober corrective to many of Deirdre Bair's more speculative theses in Samuel Beckett. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (March 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300074956
• ISBN-13: 978-0300074956
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,424,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dueling Academics, May 9, 2006

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Erstwhile (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World of Samuel Beckett, 1906-1946 (Paperback)

Gordon adds significant insight into this period of Beckett's life, and her book details the times and environment very well. However, I can't help but think that her primary reason for writing it (other than to publish rather than perish) is a personal vendetta against Bair. She seems determined to demolish the latter's biography, point by point. Worth reading anyway.