The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Volume 3, 1957–1965 - Hardcover

Beckett, Samuel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521867959 ISBN 13: 9780521867955

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2014

Synopsis

This third volume of The Letters of Samuel Beckett focuses on the years when Beckett is striving to find a balance between the demands put upon him by his growing international fame, and his need for the peace and silence from which new writing might emerge. This is the period in which Beckett launches into work for radio, film and, later, into television. It also marks his return to writing fiction, with his first major piece for a decade, Comment c'est (How It Is). Where hitherto he has been reticent about the writing process, now he devotes letter after letter to describing and explaining his work in progress. For the first time Beckett has a woman as his major correspondent: a relationship shown in his intense and abundant letters to Barbara Bray. The volume also provides critical introductions, chronologies, explanatory notes and profiles of Beckett's main correspondents.

About this title

Review

'In the third volume of this landmark project, the editors offer an expertly assembled selection of Beckett's letters written between 1957 and 1965.' Publishers Weekly

'Superb ... as with earlier volumes the editorial work on display here is of a very high order.' Standpoint

'Readers get an extraordinary insight into the mind of arguably this country's best playwright.' Irish Tatler

'The third volume is as impeccably and as lovingly edited as its predecessors ... As always, George Craig's translation of the letters in French is clear, elegant and always inventive - particularly felicitous, for instance, is his rendering of the French slang term mézigue as 'My Nibs'. Beckett would have loved it.' Irish Times

'The volume like its earlier companions is a work of meticulous scholarship and has to be counted a major achievement by Cambridge University Press.' Emer O'Kelly, Irish Independent

'Among all the tawdry showbiz memoirs now crowding the shops, here is greatness, words to take to heart, the book of the year.' David Sexton, Evening Standard

'A beautifully wrought publication and thanks to its four editors it has an artistry all of its own.' Sean Doran, The Independent

'... magnificent and accessible, this collection will be cherished by scholars, but lovers of theater will appreciate it, too.' Library Journal

'The first two volumes have been critically acclaimed, and this one is a breathtaking feat, providing new insight into Beckett's personal life and working process.' The Chronicle of Higher Education

'Wonderfully unbuttoned and, in places, intimate and endearing.' The Guardian

Book Description

This edition makes available for the first time a comprehensive range of letters by one of the twentieth century's greatest literary figures. This volume (1957–1965) shows Beckett reacting to, and building on, the success of Waiting for Godot with new work for the theatre, for radio and television.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0521867959
• ISBN 13: 9780521867955
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 816
• Editor: Craig George, Fehsenfeld Martha Dow, Gunn Dan, Overbeck Lois More