Samuel Beckett

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Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and 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".... more »

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''I know what darkness is, it accumulates, thickens, then suddenly bursts and drowns everything.''
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Irish dramatist, novelist. First published in 1953. Malone, in Malone Dies, p. 13, Grove Press (1970).
''Watt's need of semantic succour was at times so great that he would set to trying names on things, and on himself, almost as a woman hats.''
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Irish dramatist, novelist. First published in 1953. The narrator, in Watt, p. 83, Grove Press (1959).
''My notes have a curious tendency, as I realize at last, to annihilate all they purport to record.''
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Irish dramatist, novelist. First published in 1953. Malone, in Malone Dies, p., Grove Press (1970). 88.
''God is a witness that cannot be sworn.''
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Irish dramatist, novelist. First published in 1953. The narrator, in Watt, p. 9, Grove Press (1959).

Samuel Beckett

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