The Selected Works of Samuel Beckett

By Samuel Beckett

2010

First Published

4.61

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192

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5H51M

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The Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who “transformed the destitution of man into his exaltation” (The Swedish Academy), Samuel Beckett was one of the most important and influential figures of twentieth-century literature. His radically minimalist language, black humor, and surreal situations unleashed a brilliant vision uniquely Beckett’s own and in the process forever changed literature. Here in a four-volume paperback box set are Beckett’s major works in prose, drama, poetry, and criticism edited by Paul Auster. As Auster writes in his notes for the series, “Samuel Beckett created one of the most brilliant and enduring bodies of work in twentieth-century literature... The four volumes bring together nearly every word Beckett published during his lifetime... Open anywhere and begin reading. It is an experience unequaled anywhere in the universe of words.”

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Author

Samuel Beckett

Author · 95 books

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in France for most of his adult life. He wrote in both English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour. Beckett is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century. Strongly influenced by James Joyce, he is considered one of the last modernists. As an inspiration to many later writers, he is also sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. He is one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd". His work became increasingly minimalist in his later career. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation". In 1984 he was elected Saoi of Aosdána.