The Selected Works of Samuel Beckett

by Samuel Beckett

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.”

Genres: Fiction, Irish Literature, Plays, Short Stories, Literature, Poetry, Novels

2047 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2010

About the author

Novels of Samuel Barclay Beckett, Irish writer, include Murphy in 1938 and Malone Dies in 1951; a wider audience know his absurdist plays, such as Waiting for Godot in 1952 and Krapp's Last Tape in 1959, and he won the Nobel Prize of 1969 for literature.

Samuel Barclay Beckett, an avant-garde theater director and poet, lived in France for most of his adult life. He used English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black gallows humor.

People regard most influence of Samuel Barclay Beckett of the 20th century. James Augustine Aloysius Joyce strongly influenced him, whom people consider as one modernist. People sometimes consider him as an inspiration to many later first postmodernists. He is one of the key in what Martin Esslin called the "theater of the absurd". His later career worked with increasing minimalism.

People awarded Samuel Barclay Beckett "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation".

In 1984, people elected Samuel Barclay Bennett as Saoi of Aosdána.

Reviews

[Adam]

Murphy

I uncritically revere Beckett and cannot quibble with one jot of this work. The first two sentences alone render so much else--in life and literature--superfluous. It would be decadent except there is no surrender to decay and no pleasure in demise; Beckett writes like a Scheherazade on doomsday's threshold, holding annihilation in abeyance by forcing it to announce itself in straight-faced gallows humor again and again. Work for a living? I'd rather die. I would actually be fine allowing the precisely calibrated star-based rating system speak for me here, if only I could turn it up to 11.

Watt

NOTHING HAPPENS in great detail and exhaustive variation and the work widens a hole in me like a lucid merciless auger.

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four difficult but definitely worth all the while books in a box to read. This is one of the book sets that I've read and really proud of it. This collection of selected works of Samuel Beckett came out in 2010 but it only showed up here in the Philippines in 2012. So when it did, I bought it right away because it contains the four works of Beckett that got included in the first 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list in 2006. They are the following: Murphy (5 stars), Watt (4 stars), Molloy (4 stars) and Westward Ho (3 stars). The first 2 are in Volume I, the third is in Volume II and the fourth is in Volume 4. My brother bought a hardbound edition of Volume I when he saw it at Fullybooked The Fort because he said that we will just have to find Volumes I and IV, so we ordered and even up to now (that I already have and read this paperback box set), that order has not arrived. After 4 years, FullyBooked has not notified me that my order has arrived.

This collection contains so many of his works but when I searched here on Goodreads, some of his other works are not here still. I mean, wow, he wrote so many pieces of works that cannot be contained in just four thick volumes. Even after spending 2 years perusing each of the works in here, I still cannot claim that I am a Samuel Beckett completist. Ugh. The reason? As explained by Paul Auster who edited these works, "these four volumes are intended for English-language readers, and because Beckett wrote in both English and French, a number of untranslated French poems and short critical essays have not been included here. Those with a knowledge of French can find them in Collected Poems in English and French and Disjecta, both available from Grove Press." So, there I a go. I cannot be a Beckett completist since I do not know French at all.

This description of Auster about the book summarizes this collection perfectly:

"What one will find between the covers of these four volumes are the works in which Samuel Beckett's reputation rests, everything that qualifies him as one of the great literary artists of our time, all the books and plays that will continue to be read and performed for generations to come. From the dazzling early essays on Proust to the revolutionary Waiting for Godot, from the uproarious prose of Watt to the austere minimalism of How It Is, from the poetic murmurs of Texts for Nothing to the tender, heartbreaking Company, from the mordant recollections of Krapp's Last Tape, to the tragic feminine Mouth of Not I, everything is here: seven novels, thirty-two dramatic works, thirty poems, fifty-four stories, texts, and novellas, three pieces of criticism. Open anywhere and begin reading. It is an experience unequaled anywhere in the universe of words."

It is. Really. It is.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the four books in this set, I've only read and finished volume II which consists of the novels Molloy; Malone Dies; The Unnamable; How It Is. It has taken me most of the month of August to read, but I don't feel it was time wasted. The stream of consciousness method may be at times difficult to follow or understand, yet I felt an intimate connection with the characters. "Nothing human is alien to me."

[Ade Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edited with an excellent introduction by John Calder, a small pocket-sized gem of a find in the library. Great selections from novels, plays and poem. Can't find it on sale anywhere which is a pity as it serves both as a good first dip into Beckett and a lovely reminder of some of his best stuff to those who are familiar with him.

[Dipanjan Maitra · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a reprint of the Grove Centenary Edition without the Prefaces. Features most of Beckett's novels except 'Dreams of Fair to Middling Women', does not feature 'Eleutheria' either. But the selection of Shorter Prose is excellent.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that Samuel Beckett hated paragraphs is honestly my biggest takeaway from this mammoth of a collection. Occasionally, it did work to serve the story, but more often than not it came across to me almost as pandering to the stream of consciousness literarti movement, as though to show what it's like when a muscle is flexed to its utmost limit. I know some people enjoy that, but basically 2000 pages of the same trick repeated ad nauseum got old for me pretty quickly.

Were there moments of brilliance peppered throughout this collection? Absolutely. But, for me at least, they were outweighed by a lot of rambling drivel and pretention and next time I decide to read some Beckett, I will do so in smaller doses so that the individuality of each separate work can stand on its own outside of the weight of this too-complete collection.