Synopsis
Most people most of the time want to live for ever. But there is another truth - the longing for oblivion. With pain, wit and humour, the art of Samuel Beckett variously embodies this truth, this ancient-enduring belief that it is better to be dead than alive, best of all never to have been born. Beckett is the supreme writer of an age which has created new possibilities and impossibilities even in the matter of death and its definition, an age of transplants and life-support. But how does a writer give life to dismay at life itself, give life to the not-simply-welcome encroachments of death? After all, it is for the life, the vitality of their language that society values writers. As a young man, Beckett himself said of Joyce's words: "They are alive". Beckett became himself as a writer when he realized in his very words a principle of death. In cliches, which are dead but won't lie down. In a language and its memeto mori. In words which mean their own opposites, cleaving and cleaving. In the self-stultifying, or even suicidal fury that is styled the Irish bull. In what Beckett called the syntax of weakness. This book explores the relation between deep convictions about life or death and the incarnations which these take in the exact turns of a great writer, the realizations of an Irishman who wrote in English and in French, two languages with different apprehensions of life and death.
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Review
Ricks fascinates, teases and enriches our understanding (Sunday Telegraph)
Book Description
`the best introduction to why Beckett writes as he does'Times Literary Supplement
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Beckett's Dying Words: The Clarendon Lectures 1990 (Clarendon Lectures in English)
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Oxford University Press (edition First Edition), 1993
ISBN 10: 0198123582
ISBN 13: 9780198123583
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Beckett's Dying Words: The Clarendon Lectures 1990 (Clarendon Lectures in English)
Published by
Oxford University Press, 1993
ISBN 10: 0198123582
ISBN 13: 9780198123583
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Beckett's Dying Words: The Clarendon Lectures 1990 (Clarendon Lectures in English)
Published by
Oxford University Press, 1993
ISBN 10: 0198123582
ISBN 13: 9780198123583
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Hardcover
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Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0198123582I3N00
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Beckett's Dying Words: The Clarendon Lectures 1990
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Oxford University Press, USA August 1993, 1993
ISBN 10: 0198123582
ISBN 13: 9780198123583
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Beckett's Dying Words
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Condition: Fair. This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside.This book has hardback covers. Book contains pencil markings. In fair condition, suitable as a study copy. No dust jacket. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item,450grams, ISBN:0198123582. Seller Inventory # 8657698
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Beckett's Dying Words (Clarendon Lectures in English, 1990)
Seller: Anybook.com, Lincoln, United Kingdom
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Condition: Poor. This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside.This book has hardback covers. Book contains pen & pencil markings. In poor condition, suitable as a reading copy. No dust jacket. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item,450grams, ISBN:0198123582. Seller Inventory # 3727832
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Beckett's Dying Words: The Clarendon Lectures 1990
Published by
Oxford University Press, 1993
ISBN 10: 0198123582
ISBN 13: 9780198123583
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Remarks Used Books, Pittsfield, MA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: As New. 1st Edition. The Clarendon Lectures 1990. 218pp. Includes bibliographical references and index. Bright, clean & tight hardcover, unread, in AS NEW condition. "Most people most of the time want to live forever. But there is another truth: the longing for oblivion. With pain, wit, and humor, the art of Samuel Beckett variously embodies this truth, this ancient enduring belief that it is better to be dead than alive, best of all never to have been born. Beckett is the supreme writer of an age which has created new possibilities and impossibilities even in the matter of death and its definition, an age of transplants and life-support. [] But how does a writer give life to dismay at life itself, to the not-simply-unwelcome encroachments of death? After all, it is for the life, the vitality, of their language that we value writers. As a young man, Beckett himself praised Joyce's words. 'They are alive.' [] Beckett became himself as a writer when he realized in his very words a principle of death. In cliches, which are dead but won't lie down. In a dead language and its memento mori. In words which mean their own opposites, cleaving and cleaving. In the self-stultifying or suicidal turn dubbed the Irish bull. In what Beckett called a syntax of weakness. [] This book explores the relation between deep convictions about life or death and the incarnations which these take in the exact turns of a great writer--the realizations of an Irishman who wrote in English and in French, two languages with different apprehensions of life and of death." [jacket copy] "Not only a superb work of criticism but also an extremely funny book."--John Banville, New York Review of Books. "An eye-and-ear catching book . . . A learned, marvelously witty, always serious analysis of how the desire to die paradoxically gives so much of Beckett's prose its uniqueness and élan."--The Beckett Circle. "Ricks fascinates, teases and enriches our understanding."--Sunday Telegraph. Pristine hardcover w/brilliant corners & crisp edges, a square & tight binding, wrapped in a handsome, intact jacket. Seller Inventory # RUB2866
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Beckett's dying words / Christopher Ricks
Published by
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1993
ISBN 10: 0198123582
ISBN 13: 9780198123583
Used
Hardcover
Seller: MW Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Reprint. Near fine cloth copy in a good if somewhat edge-nicked and dust-dulled dust wrapper, now mylar-sleeved. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description: vi, 218 p.; 21 cm. Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: Death. The wish to die. Death as ease. Positive annihilation. Never dying. Certified death -- Words That Went Dead. Abstracted to death. Cliches. Resurrection. The obituary -- Languages, Both Dead and Living. Memento mori. Gaelic. De rigueur. Archaism and the moribund. The antithetical sense. The counter-poison -- The Irish Bull. Definitions. The bull and blasphemy. The bull and death. The bull, identity, and posterity. Coleridge and the bull. Sydney Smith and the Irish. Some bulls from Beckett. The bull and power -- Postscript: December 1989 -- A Selective Chronology of Beckett's Published Volumes. Subjects: Beckett, Samuel 1906-1989 Criticism and interpretation. Beckett, Samuel 1906-. Death in literature. Mortality in literature. French drama 20th century History and criticism. French literature. Genre: Bibliography. Criticism, interpretation, etc. 3 Kg. Seller Inventory # 337377
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Beckett's dying words / Christopher Ricks
Published by
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1993
ISBN 10: 0198123582
ISBN 13: 9780198123583
Used
Hardcover
Seller: MW Books Ltd., Galway, Ireland
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Reprint. Near fine cloth copy in a good if somewhat edge-nicked and dust-dulled dust wrapper, now mylar-sleeved. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description: vi, 218 p.; 21 cm. Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: Death. The wish to die. Death as ease. Positive annihilation. Never dying. Certified death -- Words That Went Dead. Abstracted to death. Cliches. Resurrection. The obituary -- Languages, Both Dead and Living. Memento mori. Gaelic. De rigueur. Archaism and the moribund. The antithetical sense. The counter-poison -- The Irish Bull. Definitions. The bull and blasphemy. The bull and death. The bull, identity, and posterity. Coleridge and the bull. Sydney Smith and the Irish. Some bulls from Beckett. The bull and power -- Postscript: December 1989 -- A Selective Chronology of Beckett's Published Volumes. Subjects: Beckett, Samuel 1906-1989 Criticism and interpretation. Beckett, Samuel 1906-. Death in literature. Mortality in literature. French drama 20th century History and criticism. French literature. Genre: Bibliography. Criticism, interpretation, etc. 1 Kg. Seller Inventory # 337377
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Beckett's Dying Words: Clarendon Lectures 1990
Seller: Kennys Bookstore, Olney, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. 1993. hardcover. Signed and inscribed to Édith Fournier, Beckett's translator, by Eoin O'Brien, friend of Beckett. Fine in fine dust wrapper. DW showing light age and shelf wear. Lightly toned, text is crisp and clear and remains a very good copy. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # KSG0029655