Samuel Beckett was born April 13, 1906 in Dublin, Ireland. Father - William Beckett, mother - Mary Beckett, nee May. The Beckett family supposedly moved to Ireland from France after the Edict of Nantes, in the original their surname looked like "Becquet". Beckett received a strict Protestant upbringing, studied first at a private school, then at the Earlsford boarding school. From 1920 to 1923 he continued his education at the Portor Royal School in Northern Ireland. Finally, from 1923 to 1927 Beckett studied English, French and Italian at Trinity College Dublin. After receiving his bachelor's degree, he worked briefly as a teacher in Belfast, then received an invitation to take up a position as an English teacher in Paris, at the École Normale Superior.
In Paris, Beckett meets the famous Irish writer James Joyce and becomes his literary secretary, in particular, helping him to work on the book "Finnegans Wake" (Finnegans Wake). His first literary experience was a critical study of "Dante... Bruno, Vico... Joyce". In 1930, he returned to Trinity College and received a degree there a year later. In 1931, Beckett published a critical essay "Proust" on the work of Marcel Proust, later - a dramatic allegory "Bloodoscope", written in the form of a monologue by Rene Descartes. Beckett's father dies in 1933. Feeling the "oppression of Irish life", the writer leaves for London. In 1934, he published his first collection of short stories with a common character, More Barks Than Bites, and began work on a novel called Murphy. In 1937, the writer moved to France and a year later "Murphy" was published. The novel was received rather reservedly, but was positively evaluated by Joyce himself and Dylan Thomas. Despite this, Beckett is going through a severe crisis - the commercial failure of the novel, coupled with a severe knife wound that he received in a street fight, force him to undergo treatment with a psychoanalyst, but nervous breakdowns haunted him all his life. During World War II, Beckett became a member of the French Resistance, and in 1942 was forced to flee to the village of Roussillon, in southern France. He was accompanied by a close friend, Suzanne Domeni. The novel "Watt", published in 1953, was written there.
After the war, Beckett was finally successful. In 1953, the premiere of his most famous work, the absurdist play Waiting for Godot, written in French, took place. From 1951 to 1953, a trilogy was published that made Beckett one of the most famous writers of the 20th century - the novels Molloy, Malone Dies and The Nameless. These novels were written in the non-native French language of the writer and later translated into English by him. In 1957, the drama "The End Game" was released. After 8 years, the last novel of the writer "How is it" was published. In recent years, Beckett has led an extremely reclusive life, avoiding any commentary on his work. In 1969, the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In its decision, the Nobel Committee noted:
"Samuel Beckett was awarded the prize for innovative works in prose and drama, in which the tragedy of modern man becomes his triumph. Beckett's deep pessimism contains such a love for humanity, which only increases as it deepens into the abyss of vileness and despair, and when despair seems limitless, it turns out that compassion has no limits."
Beckett agreed to accept the award only on the condition that Beckett's French publisher, the well-known Jerome Lindon, would receive it, which was done.
Samuel Beckett died in Paris on December 22, 1989 at the age of 83.
Published in Russian:
Beckett, S. Barks more than bites. - Kyiv: Nika-center, 2000. - 382 p.
Beckett, S. Dreams of women, beautiful and so-so. - M.: Text, 2006. - 349 p.
Beckett, S. Murphy. - M.: Text, 2002. - 282 p.
Beckett, S. Watt. - M.: Eksmo, 2004. - 416 p.
Beckett, S. Worthless Texts. - St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2003. - 338 p. - ("Literary monuments").
Beckett, S. Exile [Endgame. About all those who fall. Happy Days. Theater I. Dante and the Lobster. Exile. First love. End. Communication]. - M.: Izvestia, 1989. - 224 p.
Beckett, S. Trilogy [Molloy. Malone is dying. Nameless]. - St. Petersburg: Chernyshev Publishing House, 1994. - 464 p.
Beckett, S. Theater [Waiting for Godot. Endgame. Scene without words I. Scene without words II. About all those who fall. Krapp's last tape. Theater I. Theater II. Ash. Happy Days. Cascando. A game. They come and go. Eh, Joe? Breath]. - St. Petersburg: ABC; Amphora, 1999. - 345 p.
Beckett, S. Waiting for Godot. - M.: Text, 2009. - 286 p.
Beckett, S. Fragments. - M.: Text, 2009. - 192 p.
Beckett, S. Poems. - M.: Text, 2010. - 269 p.
Beckett, S. Three dialogues // As always - about the avant-garde: Sat. - M.: TPF "Soyuzteatr", GITIS, 1992. - S.118-127.
Beckett, S. Poems // Modern Dramaturgy. - 1989. - No. 1. - P.201
Beckett, S. Krapp's Last Tape. Ash. Cascando. Eh, Joe? Steps. Impromptu in the style of Ohio // Foreign. lit. - 1996. - No. 6. - P.149-173.
Beckett, S. Not me // Range. - 1997 (special issue). - P.125-131.
Beckett, S. Company // Star. - 2005. - No. 9. - P.146-161.
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Samuel Barclay Beckett is an outstanding Irish writer. One of the founders (along with Eugene Ionesco) of the theater of the absurd. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969.
Samuel Beckett was born April 13, 1906 in Dublin, Ireland. Father - William Beckett, mother - Mary Beckett, nee May. The Becket family supposedly moved to Ireland from France after the Edict of Nantes, in the original their surname looked like "Becquet".
Beckett received a strict Protestant upbringing, studied first at a private school, then at the Earlsford boarding school. From 1920 to 1923 he continued his education at the Portor Royal School in Northern Ireland. Finally, from 1923 to 1927 Beckett studied English, French and Italian at Trinity College Dublin. After receiving a bachelor's degree, he worked briefly as a teacher in Belfast, then received an invitation to take up a position as an English teacher in Paris, at the École Normale Superior.
In Paris, Beckett meets the famous Irish writer James Joyce and becomes his literary secretary, in particular, helping him to work on the book "Finnegans Wake" (Finnegans Wake). His first literary experience was a critical study of "Dante ... Bruno, Vico ... Joyce."
In 1930, he returned to Trinity College and received a degree there a year later. In 1931, Beckett published the critical essay "Proust" on the work of Marcel Proust, and later the dramatic allegory "Bloodoscope", written in the form of a monologue by Rene Descartes.
Beckett's father dies in 1933. Feeling the "oppression of Irish life", the writer leaves for London. In 1934, he published his first collection of stories with a common character, More Barks Than Bites, and began work on a novel called Murphy. In 1937, the writer moved to France and a year later "Murphy" was published. The novel was received rather reservedly, but was positively evaluated by Joyce himself and Dylan Thomas. Despite this, Beckett is going through a severe crisis - the commercial failure of the novel, coupled with a severe knife wound that he received in a street fight, force him to undergo treatment with a psychoanalyst, but nervous breakdowns haunted him all his life. During World War II, Beckett became a member of the French Resistance, and in 1942 was forced to flee to the village of Roussillon, in southern France. He was accompanied by a close friend, Suzanne Domeni. The novel "Watt", published in 1953, was written there.
After the war, Beckett was finally successful. In 1953, the premiere of his most famous work, the absurdist play Waiting for Godot, written in French, took place. The play, written in 1949 and published in English in 1954, brought the writer international recognition. From now on, Beckett is considered the leading playwright of the theater of the absurd. The first staging of the play in Paris is carried out, in close cooperation with the author, by director Roger Blain.
Having exhausted the prose with a brilliant trilogy, he took his thought to the stage. Drama helps the author to say what he himself does not know.
Beckett is a writer of desperation. He does not go to self-satisfied epochs. In any case, historical cataclysms help critics interpret Becket's incomprehensible masterpieces, about which the author himself never spoke. Thus, "Waiting for Godot" was considered by many to be a military drama, allegorically describing the experience of the French Resistance, in which Beckett took part.
From his actors, Beckett demanded strict adherence to stage directions, which occupy almost half of the text in the play. A faithful gesture was more important for the author than words.
Beckett's character is a man who is unsteady on his feet. It is understandable. The earth pulls him down, the sky - up. Stretched between them, as if on a rack, he cannot get up from all fours. The ordinary fate of everyone and everyone. After all, Beckett was interested in exclusively universal categories of being, which equally describe any rational individual. As the encyclopedia would say, Beckett was preoccupied with "the human situation." And for this, the minimum inventory that the Cherry Lane Theater provided its actors with is enough.
From 1951 to 1953, a trilogy was published that made Beckett one of the most famous writers of the 20th century - the novels "Molloy", "Malon Dies" and "Nameless". These novels were written in the non-native French language of the writer and later translated into English by him. In 1957, the drama The End Game was released. The works of Beckett's late period (such as "Come and Go", "Littleness", "Scene Without Words", "Kach-Kach") are, on the one hand, concise in text, while maintaining bright saturation. On their example, one can once again be convinced of the correctness of the ingenious phrase: "Brevity is the sister of talent."
In his mature works, Beckett has shown himself to be a master of form, with no less ease and no less virtuosity, he works with a wide range of different genres. For example, the radio play "About all those who fall" (1957) is an example of an organic combination of speech, music, and various sound effects. The short teleplay "Hey Joe" (1967) shows the possibilities of both technology and the human face, making the most of close-ups on the small screen. And in the screenplay "Film" (1967), we see a mastery of the art of editing the sequence of episodes.
The last novel of the writer is "How is it". In recent years, Beckett has led an extremely reclusive life, avoiding any commentary on his work.
In 1969, the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In its decision, the Nobel Committee noted: “Samuel Beckett was awarded the prize for innovative works in prose and drama, in which the tragedy of modern man becomes his triumph. Beckett's deep pessimism contains a love for humanity that only grows as one goes deeper into the abyss of vileness and despair, and when despair seems limitless, it turns out that compassion has no limits.
Beckett agreed to accept the award only on the condition that Beckett's French publisher, the well-known Jerome Lindon, would receive it, which was done.
On February 7, 2007, in connection with the opening of the public Center for Tolerance in the Saratov Regional Universal Scientific Library, the opening of the exhibition "Samuel Beckett" took place, which was a joint project of the Embassy of Ireland in Russia and the All-Russian State Library for Foreign Literature. M. I. Rudomino. The exposition of the exhibition includes 19 photographic plates and publications telling about the life and work of the Nobel laureate.
Samuel Barkley Beckett(English) Samuel Barclay Beckett Born April 13, 1906 – December 22, 1989) was an Irish writer, poet and playwright. Representative of modernism in literature. One of the founders (along with Eugene Ionesco) of the theater of the absurd. He gained worldwide fame as the author of the play "Waiting for Godot" (fr. En attendant Godot), one of the most significant works of world drama of the 20th century. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. He wrote in English and French.
Samuel Barclay Beckett was born on April 13 (Good Friday) 1906 in the small village of Foxrock in the immediate vicinity of Dublin, Ireland.
His father, William Frank Beckett (1871-1933), came from a wealthy Protestant family with French roots - his ancestors left France during the counter-reformation, probably after the repeal of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which outlawed the Huguenots. The grandfather of the future writer, also William ("Bill"), founded a fairly large and successful construction business: for example, the firm "J. and W. Beckett Builders was the contractor for the building of the National Library and the National Museum of Ireland. Beckett's father was also involved in the construction business, professionally dealing with real estate valuation and construction estimates. Unlike his son, as well as his brothers, Samuel's uncles, Bill was not distinguished by artistic inclinations, but he was an excellent athlete, a good businessman, a family man and had a good-natured disposition. Beckett was very friendly with his father and subsequently grieved at his death.
Mother, Mary (May) Beckett, née Roe (eng. Roe) (1871-1950), also came from a Protestant family of parishioners of the Church of Ireland, who belonged to the middle class: her father was the owner of a mill and was engaged in harvesting and selling grain. At the age of 15, Mei was orphaned, the family business was in disorder, and the future mother of the writer was forced to work as a nurse and a nurse in a hospital, where she met her future husband. In 1901, the couple got married and the following year celebrated the birth of their first child, Frank, and four years later, Samuel was born. Mei was distinguished by a firm and domineering character, however, the spouses successfully complemented each other, and their marriage can generally be called happy.
The future writer spent his childhood in Foxrock, in a spacious parental house, which was adjacent to a plot of one acre. Beckett grew up as an athletic and restless boy, closer to his father than to his pedantic and domineering mother.
Beckett received a strict Protestant upbringing, first educated at home, then, from the age of 9, at Earlsforth School in Dublin. The school was in good standing with wealthy Irish people, many of its teachers were graduates of the prestigious Trinity College. At school, Beckett gained fame as an excellent athlete and a capable student. In 1920, at the age of 14, Beckett became a student at the private Royal School of Portora in Enniskillen, in Northern Ireland. It is noteworthy that another outstanding writer and Beckett's compatriot, Oscar Wilde, previously studied at the same school. In Portora (the school still exists today), Beckett discovers brilliant abilities both in the humanities and in sports disciplines - rugby, cricket, swimming, golf and boxing. However, despite academic and sports achievements, as well as authority among peers, Beckett has problems with communication, growing up as a gloomy and withdrawn young man.
University and Paris years (1923-1930)
Finally, in 1923, Beckett entered the famous Dublin Trinity College, where he intensively studied English and contemporary European literature, French and Italian. At Trinity College, Beckett meets Thomas Rodmose-Brown, a professor of Romance languages, who instills in the young man an interest in classical and modern European literature and drama (Beckett intensively studies Ronsard, Petrarch, Racine and others), and also encourages him in his first creative endeavors. In addition, Beckett takes private Italian lessons and avidly studies Machiavelli, Giosue Carducci, D'Annunzio and, of course, Dante's Divine Comedy.
In his university years, Beckett becomes a regular visitor to Dublin theaters - the Irish drama of that time, through the works of Yeats, O\"Casey and Sing, is flourishing, - cinema halls, as well as art galleries. In addition, Beckett persistently and enthusiastically engages in self-education, reads a lot, becomes a regular at the National galleries of Ireland, imbued with a passion for the fine arts and a special interest in the Old Masters, in particular Dutch painting of the 17th century.Beckett's love for art history and a deep knowledge of contemporary painting will carry him through his entire creative biography.The first truly serious love affair belongs to the university years Beckett's passion, however, apparently, non-reciprocal, is Etna McCarthy, later bred under the name of Alba in "Dreams of Women, Beautiful and So-So".
During 1925-1926, Beckett traveled extensively, visiting France and Italy for the first time. In 1927, Beckett passed the exams, received a bachelor's degree in linguistics (French and Italian) and, on the recommendation of his teacher, Professor Rodmose-Brown, received a position as a teacher of English and French at Campbell College in Belfast. Pedagogical practice depresses the future writer: Beckett finds it unbearably boring to explain elementary material, and after working for two semesters, thanks to a teaching exchange program, he goes to Paris, to the prestigious École Normale, as an English teacher. At the same time, Beckett's two-year romance with his cousin Peggy Sinclair begins.
Upon arrival in Paris, Beckett meets his Ecole exchange program predecessor, Thomas McGreevy, who is destined to become the writer's closest friend and confidant for the rest of his life. McGreevy introduces Beckett into artistic bohemia circles. In Paris, Beckett makes acquaintances with such celebrities as Eugene Jolas (writer, father of the famous pianist and composer Betsy Jolas), Sylvia Beach (one of the most significant figures in the literary Paris of the era between the two world wars), Jack Butler Yeats (the largest Irish national artist, junior brother of the famous poet), apart from which stands already then recognized literary genius James Joyce. Very little time passes and Beckett becomes a frequent guest in the house of the famous author of Ulysses.
First literary experiences (1929-1933)
In 1929, in Paris, Beckett met his future wife, Suzanne Decheveaux-Dumesnil (fr. Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil) (1900 - 06/17/1989), and also publishes his first literary experience, created at the instigation of Joyce, in one of the journals - a critical essay “Dante ... Bruno. Vico..Joyce" and the first short story "Ascension" (Eng. Assumption).
It is in the essay on Joyce, commenting on the attacks on the late work of the famous compatriot, that Beckett formulates an important idea in the context of the young author's views on the essence of writing: “Here form is content, content is form. You complain that this piece is not written in English. It hasn't been written at all. It is not to be read - or rather, it is not only to be read. She needs to be seen and heard. His writing is not about anything; it is that something."
Around the same time, Beckett became close friends with James Joyce and became his literary secretary, helping him in particular to work on his latest and most unusual and innovative work, which eventually became known as Finnegans Wake. Finnegan's Wake). An ambiguous episode in Beckett's biography is also connected with the Joyce family, which caused a break, however temporary, with a famous compatriot. Joyce's daughter, mentally unstable Lucia, becomes overly infatuated with her father's young and attractive assistant. Beckett does not reciprocate Joyce's daughter suffering from schizophrenia, the result of everything is Beckett's break with Joyce and the imminent placement of Lucia in a psychiatric hospital, where she will spend the rest of her days.
In the fall of 1930, Beckett returned to Trinity College, where he continued his teaching career as an assistant to Prof. Rodmose-Brown, teaching French and lecturing on Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, Gide, Bergson. Lecturing and teaching are incredibly burdensome for the closed, almost pathologically shy Beckett - after working for one academic year, Beckett, to the sharp displeasure of his mother and the disappointment of his father, leaves Trinity College and returns to Paris.
Around this time is the writing of the poem "Chasoscope" (Eng. Whorescope), created in the form of a monologue on behalf of one of Beckett's favorite philosophers, René Descartes, the writer's first published work in a separate book, and a critical essay "Proust" on the work of the French modernist Marcel Proust.
In the first half of 1932, already living in Paris, Beckett was working on his first major prose work, Dreams of Women Beautiful and So-So. ) started in Dublin a year earlier. The book, written in a complex “baroque” language, not typical for a mature and, in particular, late Becket, demonstrating the sophisticated erudition of a young author, is devoted to a verbose and confusing description of the relationship of a young man bearing autobiographical features named Belacqua (the namesake of one of the characters in Dante's Purgatory) with three girls (the prototype of the first of them, Smeraldina-Rima, was his cousin Peggy Sinclair, the second, Syra-Kuza, the crazy daughter of Joyce, Lucia, the third, Alba, the love interest of the writer of university times, Etna McCarthy). The novel was a rather “raw”, according to Beckett himself, “immature and unworthy”, although demonstrating the author’s extensive encyclopedic erudition in matters of literature, philosophy and theology, the work was expectedly rejected by all publishers, and published, according to the will of the author himself, only posthumously in 1992.
"Bad Times", novel "Murphy", final emigration to France (1933-40)
1933 is not an easy year for a novice and so far unsuccessful writer. First, Peggy Sinclair dies of tuberculosis, a few weeks later, Beckett's father passes away, which plunges him into severe depression, interspersed with panic attacks. The writer once again leaves Ireland and moves to live in London. In England, Beckett, despite the fact that his father left him a certain amount of maintenance at his death, lives in financially constrained conditions and continues to suffer from depression, self-doubt and his own future. In the hope of getting rid of severe psychological problems, Beckett resorts to sessions of psychoanalysis, which was rapidly developing at that time, enthusiastically reads the works of Freud, Adler, Rank and Jung. The course of psychotherapy helps Beckett to realize that creativity can be a good medicine on the way to recovery from neuroses and complexes.
In May 1934, Beckett finally manages to publish his first collection of stories, united by the common hero Belacqua, already familiar to us, - "More barks than bites" (translation option - "More pokes than blows") (eng. More Than Kicks), which, however, also did not have any significant success either with readers or critics. In 1935, a small publishing house owned by one of the writer's friends publishes Beckett's poetry collection Echo Bones. By the same time, work began on the novel "Murphy".
As you can see, neither a writing career, nor a career as a literary critic and essayist in London is set. Beckett is in the process of an anxious and mostly unsuccessful search for himself in the profession and life. So, Beckett writes a letter to S. Eisenstein with a request to be admitted to study at the State Institute of Cinematography (no answer was received), tries to get a teaching position at the University of Cape Town, writes the poem "Cascando" along the way, travels around Nazi Germany, paying special attention to the richest art galleries in Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden and Munich.
In mid-October 1937, the writer finally settled in Paris, which was destined to become his second home until his death.
Having settled in France, Beckett tries to attach Murphy, completed in June 1936, to one of the publishers, and after 42 refusals, the novel is still published in March 1938.
This work is the fruit of Beckett's great and intense work in honing his own literary style and storytelling skills. The work, which was begun during the writer's stay in London in 1934, is still strongly influenced by Joyce, however, Beckett's voice takes on an increasingly individual character. In the center of the story is an unemployed Irishman living in London named Murphy and the story of his escape from the reality of the surrounding world. Murphy professes a philosophy of minimal effort, a kind of non-doing, which, in turn, predetermines the hero's eccentric behavior - Murphy periodically fastens his belts to a rocking chair, introducing himself into a kind of trance and spending quite a long time in this state. Deeply distrustful, bordering on disgust, of any kind of physical or social activity, Murphy is utterly impractical and lives on the payroll of his beloved Celia, who, as a prostitute, tries in vain to encourage Murphy to find work and start a normal family life.
Balancing on the verge of parody in describing the numerous oddities of a hero who is not quite normal from the point of view of the layman, Beckett nevertheless does not set himself the goal of ridiculing another of the endless series of untalented losers who cover up their laziness and inability to practical life with far-fetched eccentric theories. Beckett is both mocking and extremely serious in relation to his character, whose ideological searches: an attempt to resolve the contradiction between the soul and the body, the desire for peace and the need for activity, an attempt to find harmony with oneself, hermetically fenced off from the world, form the core of the philosophical searches of the writer throughout life. Murphy's intellectual escape ends tragically, and the novel itself, written in a departure from the usual fictional patterns, full of specific humor, literary and philosophical allusions, despite the praise of Joyce, was received by critics with great restraint and did not have any commercial success.
Another literary failure, already suffering from depression, Beckett is going through very hard. Beckett is trying to find solace in arranging her personal life, converging with Suzanne Decheveaux-Dumenil, as it turned out - for the rest of her life (the couple will officially marry only in 1961). At the same time, Beckett began translating "Murphy" into French and made his first attempts at writing poetry in a language that was not his own.
World War II, the novel "Watt" (1940-1945)
In June 1940, the Third Reich deals a crushing blow to France, German troops enter Paris. Beckett, despite being a citizen of neutral Ireland, becomes a member of the Resistance. Despite the fact that Beckett's participation in the "Resistance" was reduced mainly to the performance of translation and courier functions, the danger to which the writer exposed himself was quite real, if not deadly. Later, Beckett, with his characteristic modesty and self-irony, recalled that his struggle with Nazi Germany was similar to the game of boy scouts.
In 1942, the Resistance cell, of which Samuel and Suzanne were members, is exposed, its members are arrested, and the couple, fleeing Gestapo persecution, is forced to flee to the unoccupied part of France, to the small village of Roussillon in the province of Vaucluse in the south of the country. Here Beckett lies at the bottom, posing as a French peasant and handyman, earning a living by day labor in the field, chopping firewood.
The gloomy life experience gained during several years spent in the south of France, in an atmosphere of relentless fear for one's own life, abandonment and isolation from the world, engaged in hard physical labor, formed the basis of Beckett's next prose work, the third novel in a row "Watt" ", published only in 1953 and which became a turning point in the writer's work. If Beckett's earlier works still followed in the wake of the founding literary canons, had, albeit vaguely structured, a plot, characters endowed with a realistic biography, then Watt innovatively breaks with any such conventions. If Murphy can still be classified as a typical “urban lunatic”, who went crazy against the backdrop of the philosophizing of an “eternal student”, or just a young intellectual in conflict with the world, then Watt is a creature with a dark past, a little understood present and a completely foggy future. The plot of the novel, for all its schematic conventionality, is very simple: Watt goes to work in Mr. Nott's house, finds himself in the center of completely illogical and absurd events that he unsuccessfully tries to understand. All Watt's attempts to think, understand or simply feel Mr. Nott, during which Watt loses the ability to rational thinking and communication, fail, and Watt, completely disoriented, leaves Mr. Nott's house, and another servant, Mick, comes to Watt's place. As a modern Russian researcher of the writer's work, D. V. Tokarev, writes, the role of a deity in the novel “is performed by Mr. Nott, whose nature transcends the concepts inherent in the human mind. The deity is inaccessible to perception, inaccessible to the gaze of an external observer who is trying to attribute human qualities to him. Thus, in "Watt" Beckett raises a whole layer of questions of philosophy, theology, laying the foundation for his innovative creative method, which consists in the rejection of the previous realistic tradition with its conventions and a set of standard techniques.
At the end of the war, Beckett, awarded by the French government for his participation in the Resistance, served for some time in the Irish Red Cross military hospital in Saint-Lo in Normandy, then returned to Paris with Suzanne.
Post-war success, trilogy, theater of the absurd (1946-1969)
Living in Paris between 1946 and 1950. Beckett continues to work on prose: short novels, the novels Mercier and Camier, Molloy, Malon Dies and The Nameless. The last three works that make up the trilogy represent a separate milestone in Beckett's creative biography. Finding a publisher for the trilogy took several years. With the active participation of Beckett's wife, Suzanne, a publisher was found by the early 1950s, and advanced critics paid close attention to the little-known author.
If at the beginning of his career, Beckett gravitated towards the expanded and complicated intellectual and philosophical search inherited directly from Joyce, was fascinated by language games and the construction of complex allusions, then when working on Watt and the trilogy, Beckett is guided by a radically different poetics - the characters lose some the individual traits that characterize them, the realities and signs of the time and place of action become elusive, the action itself is reduced to nothing. These texts really made a revolution in world literature: for example, Louis Aragon admitted that he did not understand how such prose was even possible. However, it became possible, and, paradoxically, in a language that was not native to the author.
In 1948, Beckett completed work on his most famous work, which gained worldwide fame, the absurdist play "Waiting for Godot", which premiered in Paris at the very beginning of January 1953.
All works created after the end of World War II were written by the author in French. Thus, Beckett finally turns to French as the main language of literary creativity, thereby continuing the rare tradition of bilingualism in European literature, becoming on a par with J. Conrad, Franz Kafka and V. V. Nabokov. Later, Beckett explained the transition to French by the need to develop a detached method of writing, devoid of a distinctive style.
By the beginning of the 1950s. success finally comes to Beckett. "Waiting for Godot" is staged in the best theaters in Europe. From 1951 to 1953, a prose trilogy was published (the novels Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Nameless), which made Beckett one of the most famous and influential writers of the 20th century. These works, based on the innovative approaches to prose tested during the work on "Watt", and having little in common with the usual literary forms, were written in French and later translated into English by the author himself.
Following the success of Waiting for Godot, Beckett continued to work as a playwright, receiving a commission from the BBC in 1956 to produce a radio play called All That Fall. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Beckett created plays that laid the foundation for the so-called theater of the absurd - "End Game" / "Endgame" (1957), "Krapp's Last Tape" / "Krapp's Last Tape" (1958) and " Happy days ”/“ Happy Days ”(1961). These works, which almost immediately became international theatrical classics, are similar in subject matter to the philosophy of existentialism, touch on the themes of despair and the will to live in the face of an indifferent to man and unknowable world.
Beckett continues to work in the field of dramaturgy and, despite the fact that his works are deeply imbued with the themes of aging, loneliness, suffering and death, he not only achieves local success among the intellectual bohemia of Paris and London, but acquires worldwide fame and recognition, the pinnacle of which is the award Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. In its decision, the Nobel Committee noted:
Samuel Beckett was awarded the prize for innovative works in prose and drama, in which the tragedy of modern man becomes his triumph. Beckett's deep pessimism contains a love for humanity that only grows as one goes deeper into the abyss of vileness and despair, and when despair seems limitless, it turns out that compassion has no limits.
Beckett, who did not tolerate the close attention to his own person that accompanies literary fame, agreed to accept the award only on the condition that it would be received by the French publisher and, concurrently, Beckett's longtime friend, Jerome Lindon, which was done.
Later work and last years (1970-1989)
By the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, Beckett's work was increasingly drifting towards minimalism and compactness. A striking example of this evolution is the play "Breath" / "Breath" (1969), which lasts only 35 seconds and does not have a single character. During the production of the play Not I / Not I (1972), the viewer has the opportunity to see only the brightly lit mouth of the narrator, while the rest of the stage is completely covered in darkness.
Despite the fact that Beckett's works are focused on the individual "existential" experience of a separate, private and socially marginal person, there is a place in the author's work for the manifestation of citizenship. An example is the play "Catastrophe" / "Catastrophe" (1982), dedicated to the Czech playwright, a good friend of Beckett and later the first president of the post-communist Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, which is entirely focused on the theme of tyranny.
The late period of Beckett's work is marked by long pauses, the continuation of experiments with poetry and prose interrupted by dramatic works. In the first half of the 1980s, Beckett created a series of short stories "Company" (1980), "Ill Seen Ill Said" (1982) and "Worstward Ho" (1984), in which the writer continues the dialogue with memory, voices from the past.
In recent years, Beckett has led an extremely secluded life, avoiding making any comments about his work. Samuel Beckett died in Paris on December 22, 1989 at the age of 83, a few months after the death of his wife Suzanne.
Interesting Facts
- Beckett had a lifelong interest in chess. The passion for this game was probably passed on to Beckett from his own uncle Howard, who managed to outplay the reigning world chess champion Raul Capablanca during a simultaneous game with Dublin amateurs.
- Beckett was attractive to women: for example, one of the richest brides of her time, Peggy Guggenheim, the heiress of a multi-million dollar fortune, had a strong romantic interest in the writer, however, Beckett did not look for easy ways in life.
- Beckett's favorite book was Dante's Divine Comedy, the writer could talk about it or quote huge chunks of it for hours. It is significant that on the deathbed of the writer, in 1989, they found a poem by the great Italian edition of Beckett's student times.
- Despite the generally negative attitude towards Irish nationalism, the sharp rejection of certification of himself as an Irish writer, and the fact that Beckett spent most of his life in exile, the writer retained the citizenship of the Republic of Ireland until the end of his days.
Heritage
Beckett, who gained great fame during his lifetime, deservedly ranks among the classics of Western European literature of the 20th century. The writer's work, distinguished by its innovative approach and deep philosophical content, occupies an honorable place in the pantheon of English-language and world literature along with its outstanding predecessors Joyce, Proust and Kafka. Beckett's work represents the most consistent attack on the realist literary tradition. Beckett, in fact, reinvented both literature and theater, clearing them of the dictates of conventions, focusing his attention on the most universally formulated problems of individual existence, the search for its meaning, loneliness and death. As the Russian literary critic Alexander Genis notes, “Beckett's hero is a man who is unsteady on his feet. It is understandable. The earth pulls him down, the sky - up. Stretched between them, as if on a rack, he cannot get up from all fours. The ordinary fate of everyone and everyone. Beckett, after all, was interested in exclusively universal categories of being, equally describing any rational individual.
Beckett's influence on contemporary art is enormous. At various times such famous playwrights as Václav Havel, John Banville, Aidan Higgins, Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter publicly acknowledged Beckett's authority. The Beat generation, as well as authors such as Thomas Kinsella and Derek Mahon, owe much to the work of the Irish writer. Many major composers, including Morton Feldman, Heinz Holliger, Pascal Dusapin, created works based on Beckett's texts.
In Ireland, where the memory of the writer is honored no less zealously than the memory of Joyce, festivals dedicated to Beckett's creative heritage are regularly held. On December 10, 2009, in Dublin, with the participation of another Nobel laureate in literature from Ireland, the famous poet Seamus Heaney, a solemn ceremony was held to open a new bridge over the Liffey, bearing the name of the writer.
Major works (with time of publication)
Prose
- Dreams of women, beautiful and so-so / Dream of Fair to Middling Women (1932)
- Barks more than bites / More pricks than kicks(1992) (short stories)
- Murphy / Murphy (1938)
- Molloy / Molloy (1951)
- Malon dies / Malone meurt (1951)
- Watt / Watt (1953)
- unnamed / L'innomable (1953)
- As it is / Comment c'est (1961)
- Ravager / Le Depeupler (1971)
- Mercier and Camier / Mercier et Camier (1974)
- Companion / company (1979)
- Waiting for Godot / En attendant Godot(1952, Russian translation 1966)
- Action without words 1 / Act Without Words I (1956)
- Action without words 2 / Act Without Words II (1956)
- End of the game / Fin de party (1957)
- Krapp's last film / Krapp's Last Tape (1958)
- Theatrical Shard 1 / Rough for Theater I(late 1950s)
- Theatrical Shard 2 / Rough for Theater II(late 1950s)
- Happy Days / happy days (1960)
- A game / play (1963)
- Come and go / Come and Go (1965)
- Breath / breath
We always come up with something to pretend that we live.
Beckett Samuel
Plays from different years
Samuel Beckett
Plays from different years
From the translator
One of Beckett's plays already published in Russian is called "About all those who fall". The words are taken from Psalm 144: "The Lord upholds all who fall and raises up all those who are cast down." The title covers, it seems to me, the proposed selection, and all of Beckett's work. He does not demand: "Love me because I will die", he, on the contrary, because they die, loves his unfortunate heroes, and also because they were born into this world and in a dark period - no longer life and until death - on an empty and deep, motionless vibrating stage, they will tremble from the cold and wait, and not wait for Godot.
They say that Beckett, shortly before his death, went to a nursing home so as not to burden his wife with himself, and then every day he ran to her on a date. If this did not happen, it was worth inventing such a typically Becketian finale, as - in which case - it would be worth inventing Beckett himself, because without this rhythmic dumbness seeking words, without this ambiguous, like poetry, paradoxical and gayer-tragic, like life, thoughtful, intercessory, brilliant mumbling is very difficult, isn't it, to imagine what is commonly called modern literature.
Beckett rigorously translated his French things into English and vice versa, while throwing out the master's master with crazy ingenuity - such knees that a representative of a modest translation profession can only gasp enviously, looking at what Jupiter is allowed to do. In view of what has been said, in my opinion, Beckett's texts cannot be translated except from the original. The plays "Cascando" and "Step" were translated from French, the rest of the plays - from English.
CRAPP'S LAST TAPE
A play in one act
Late evening in the future.
Crap's room.
At the forefront is a small table with two drawers opening towards the auditorium.
At the table, looking into the hall, that is, on the other side of the boxes, sits a tired old man - Krapp.
Black red tight trousers are short for him. The reddish black vest has four large pockets. Massive silver watch with a chain. A very dirty white collarless shirt is open at the chest. Wild-looking off-white shoes, very large, terribly narrow, pointed.
The face is pale. Crimson nose. Gray hairs. Unbrit.
Very nearsighted (but no glasses). Tug on the ear.
Walks with difficulty.
On the table is a tape recorder with a microphone and several cardboard boxes with reels of records.
The table and the small space around it are brightly lit. The rest of the scene is in darkness.
For a moment Krapp sits motionless, then sighs heavily, looks at his watch, fumbles in his pocket, pulls out an envelope, puts it back, fumbles in his pocket again, pulls out a bunch of keys, raises to his eyes, selects the right key, gets up and walks around the table. He bends down, opens the first drawer, looks into it, fumbles with his hand, takes out the spool of records, looks at it, puts it back, locks the drawer, unlocks the second drawer, looks into it, fumbles with his hand, takes out a big banana, examines it, locks the drawer, puts keys in pocket. He turns, walks to the edge of the stage, stops, strokes the banana, peels, throws the peel right at his feet, puts the tip of the banana in his mouth and freezes, staring blankly into space. Finally, he takes a bite of a banana, turns around and starts walking back and forth along the edge of the stage, across the illuminated area, that is, no more than four or five steps, thoughtfully devouring a banana. So he stepped on the peel, slipped, almost fell. He bends over, examines the peel, and finally, without straightening up, throws the peel into the orchestra pit. He walks back and forth again, finishes his banana, returns to the table, sits down, sits still for a moment, takes a deep breath, takes the keys out of his pocket, raises them to his eyes, selects the right key, gets up, walks around the table, unlocks the second drawer, takes out another large banana, looks at it, locks the drawer, puts the keys in his pocket, turns, walks to the edge of the stage, stops, strokes the banana, peels it, throws the peel into the orchestra pit, puts the tip of the banana in his mouth and freezes, staring blankly into space. Finally, it dawns on him, he puts the banana in his vest pocket, so that the tip sticks out, and with all the speed he is still capable of, he rushes into the dark depths of the scene. Ten seconds pass. The cork pops loudly. Fifteen seconds pass. He comes out again with an old ledger in his hands and sits down at the table. He puts the ledger in front of him, wipes his mouth, wipes his hands on his waistcoat, then tightly closes his palms and begins to rub his hands.
CRAPP (with enthusiasm). Aha! (He bends over the ledger, flips through the pages, finds the right place, reads.) Box ... tr-ri ... reel ... five. (Raises his head, looks straight ahead. With pleasure.) Coil! (Pause.) Katu-u-ear! (Blissful smile. Pause. He leans over the table and begins sorting through the boxes.) Box... tr-ri... tr-ri... four... two... (surprised) nine! Lord God! .. Seven ... Aha! There you are, you bastard! (Raises the box, examines it.) Box three. (Puts it on the table, opens it, rummages through the reels.) Reel... (looks at the ledger) five... (looks at the reels) five... five... Aha! There you are, you bastard! (Takes out the reel, examines it.) Reel five. (Puts it on the table, closes box three, puts it aside, takes the spool.) Box three, spool five. (Bends over the tape recorder, looks up. With pleasure.) Katu-u-ear! (He smiles blissfully. He bends down, puts the reel on the tape recorder, rubs his hands.) Aha! (Looks into the ledger, reads the entry at the bottom of the page.) Mom has been exhausted ... Hm ... Black ball ... (Raises her head, looks with a meaningless look. In bewilderment.) Black ball? (Looks at the ledger again, reads.) Swarthy nurse... (Raises her head, thinks, looks at the ledger again, reads.) Some improvement in bowel function... Hm... Immemorial... what? (He leans over the ledger.) The equinox, the immemorial equinox. (Raises his head, looks blankly. Perplexed.) Immemorial equinox? .. (Pause. Shrugs, looks again at the ledger, reads.) Farewell... (turns the page) love. (He raises his head, thinks, leans towards the tape recorder, turns it on, sits down, preparing to listen, that is, leans forward, facing the viewer, puts his elbows on the table, puts his hand to his ear.)
Ribbon (strong voice, slightly elevated tone. Clearly recognizable Krapp's voice, only much younger). Today I turned thirty-nine, and this ... (Sitting down comfortably, he brushes one box off the table, curses, turns off the tape recorder, angrily dumps the boxes and ledger on the floor, rewinds the tape to the beginning, turns it on.) Today I hit thirty-nine, and this is a signal, not to mention my old weakness; as for intelligence, I seem to be on... (searching for a word) on the crest... or something like that. Marked a gloomy date, like all recent years, quietly, in a tavern. Nobody. He sat by the fireplace with his eyes closed and separated the grain from the chaff. I sketched something on the back of the envelope. But now, thank God, I'm at home, and it's nice to get back into my old rags. I just ate, ashamed to say, three bananas and could hardly resist not to eat the fourth one. This is the death of a man in my condition. (Impetuously.) Finish them! (Pause.) The new lamp is a major achievement. In this ring of darkness, I somehow feel less lonely. (Pause.) In a way. (Pause.) It's nice to get up, walk in the dark and come back to... (hesitates) to yourself. (Pause.) To Krapp.
That's right, it's interesting, but what do I mean by this ... (He hesitates.) I mean, obviously, those values that will remain when all the turbidity ... when all my turbidity settles down. I close my eyes and try to imagine them. (Pause. Krapp quickly closes his eyes.) It's strange how quiet it is tonight, so I strain my ears and don't hear a sound. Old Miss McGlom always sings at this hour. But today it is silent. She says these are the songs of her youth. It's hard to imagine her young. However, a wonderful woman. From Connacht, apparently. (Pause.) Interesting, and me? Will I sing at that age, if, of course, I live? No. (Pause.) Did I sing as a child? No. (Pause.) Have I ever sung? No.
Here, I listened to recordings of some year, in fits and starts, at random, I didn’t check the book, but it was recorded ten or twelve years ago, no less. At that time I still lived from time to time with Bianca in Cedar Street. Oh my god, enough of that. Sheer sadness. (Pause.) Well, what can I say about Bianca, except that her eyes should be given their due. With all the warmth This is how I see them all of a sudden. Weird eyes. (Pause.) Oh, come on... (Pause.) The darkest thing is all these post mortem, but often they... (switches off the tape recorder, thinks, then turns it back on)... help me move on to a new... (hesitates) retrospective. I just can't believe I was once this young puppy. Voice! God! And what ambitions. (Laughter, joined by the current Krapp.) And solutions! (A chuckle, which the current Krapp joins in.) Drinking less, for example. (Laughter of the current Krapp.) Let's sum it up. One thousand seven hundred hours out of the previous eight thousand with something - exclusively in taverns. More than twenty percent, that is, about forty percent of his entire life, if you do not count sleep. (Pause.) Plans to move on to a less... (hesitates) exciting sex life. Father's last illness. Some laziness, already peeping in the pursuit of happiness. A vain desire to forget. A mockery of what he calls his youth, praising God for the fact that she has passed. (Pause.) Here, however, some false notes. The vague outlines of opus... magnum. And in conclusion (chuckle) downright tearful cry to the harsh Providence. (Long laughter, which is echoed by the current Krapp.) And what is left of all this dregs? A girl in a poor little green coat on a railway platform? No?
