This new book situates Beckett in a philosophical and literary tradition that has argued for the creative value of stupidity, a key concept in the thinking of philosophers such as Wittgenstein. It investigates the relationship between verbal cliché, revealing the strategies he used to challenge intellectual and social authority in his works.

_______________ 'A triumph of scholarship and sympathy... one of the great post-war biographies' - Independent 'A landmark in scholarly criticism... Knowlson is the world's largest Beckett scholar. His life is right up there with George Painter's Proust and Richard Ellmann's Joyce in sensitivity and fascination' - Daily Telegraph 'It is hard to imagine a fuller portrait of the man who gave our age some of the myths by which it lives' - Evening Standard _______________ SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD PRIZE _______________ Samuel Beckett's long-standing friend, James Knowlson, recreates Beckett's youth in Ireland, his studies at Trinity College, Dublin in the early 1920s and from there to the Continent, where he plunged into the multicultural literary society of late-1920s Paris. The biography throws new light on Beckett's stormy relationship with his mother, the psychotherapy he received after the death of his father and his crucial relationship with James Joyce. There is also material on Beckett's six-month visit to Germany as the Nazi's tightened their grip. The book includes unpublished material on Beckett's personal life after he chose to live in France, including his own account of his work for a Resistance cell during the war, his escape from the Gestapo and his retreat into hiding. Obsessively private, Beckett was wholly committed to the work which eventually brought his public fame, beginning with the controversial success of "Waiting for Godot" in 1953, and culminating in the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.

Over the last decade, Samuel Beckett's popularity has rocketed around the world and he is increasingly recognised as one of the most important and influential writers of the twentieth century but there has been very little scholarly work on Beckett's reception outside Europe. This comprehensive volume brings together essays from leading critics on Beckett's international critical reception. Due to Beckett's linguistic and artistic abilities, he was intimately involved in the translation and production of his writings in German, French, English and Spanish; and consequently countries using these languages have sophisticated critical traditions. However, many other countries have adopted Beckett as their own, from places where he lived for lengthy periods of his life (England, France, Ireland and Germany), to those finding directly applicable political messages in his work (such as ex-Soviet states including the Czech Republic and Romania), and those countries whose national literary traditions bear heavily upon his work (e.g. Norway and Italy). This fascinating volume reveals Beckett's evolving critical reception from contemporary reviews to the present.

The relationship between James Joyce and Samuel Beckett has long been of interest to literary critics and readers alike and Re: Joyce 'n Beckett explores that relationship more fully that any other single work of the current scholarship. This volume provides the reader with an overview of the main trends and dilemmas that have dominated discussions on the complex Joyce/Beckett relationship, and pulls together previously scattered materials into a cohesive whole. It also contains an extensive bibliography of particular interest to scholars who will find this composite of sources priceless. The main section offers eleven engaging new essays written from many points of view on a variety of topics including, the impact of biographies written on both Joyce and Beckett, the handling of Irish materials in the short story form, the use of allusion as well as larger narrative structures, the portrayal of the concept of the artist, and the way in which each author deals with the problem of "authority" in their writings. An original one-act play by Denis Regan is also included; the play premiered in April 1990 at the Milwaukee Irishfest. This work does much to challenge previous misconceptions about the Joyce/Beckett relationship. Re: Joyce 'n Beckett is a rich, lively work that brings the relationship of these two, crucially important literary figures of the twentieth century together in one definitive volume.

Beckett's Political Imagination uncovers Beckett's lifelong engagement with political thought and political history, showing how this concern informed his work as fiction author, dramatist, critic and translator. This radically new account will appeal to students, researchers and Beckett lovers alike.

Explores the hidden political and ethical dimensions of the work of Samuel Beckett, an author who might otherwise be considered indifferent to such considerations.