In 1933, the same year Hitler came to power in Germany, a twenty-seven year-old Samuel Beckett watched as his father passed from this world into the next. On his deathbed, his father's final words to Beckett were "fight fight fight" and "what a morning." Though his father's gallows humor expressed itself in many of the plays Beckett wrote, ultimately Beckett came to his own conclusions about death. The ending lines of his last play may well be a response to his father's final words: "It is winter./Without journey./Time passes./That is all./Make sense who may." In his plays, Beckett's efforts to "make sense" of that "journey" established him as one of the most influential playwrights of the twentieth century.
Setting the playwright in context to his personal life, social, historical and political events, other writers of influence, and more, you will quickly gain a deep understanding of Samuel Beckett and the plays he wrote. Read Beckettin an Hour and experience his plays like never before. Know the playwright, love the play!
The book features:
• Beckett in an Hour, the primary essay in the book
• Beckett In a Minute, a snapshot chronology
• A complete listing of Beckett's work
• A list of Beckett's contemporaries in all fields
• Excerpts from Beckett's plays
• An extensive bibliography grouped according to type of reader
• An index of the main essay.
Playwrights in an Hour is a series devoted to the most produced and studied playwrights in the English language, from the Greek masters to contemporary writers, and written by leading authorities in the field. Each short bookplaces the playwright and his or her work in historical, social, and literary context.
