SAMUEL BECKETT: THE CRITICAL HERITAGE THE CRITICAL HERITAGE SERIES General Editor: B.C.Southam The Critical Heritage series collects together a large body of criticism on major figures in literature. Each volume presents the contemporary responses to a particular writer, enabling the student to follow the formation of critical attitudes to the writer’s work and its place within a literary tradition. The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to fragments of contemporary opinion and little published documentary material, such as letters and diaries. Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included in order to demonstrate fluctuations in reputation following the writer’s death. SAMUEL BECKETT THE CRITICAL HERITAGE Edited by L.GRAVER AND R.FEDERMAN London and New York First published in 1979 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Reprinted by Routledge in 1997, 1999 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE & 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 Compilation, introduction, notes and index © 1979 L.Graver & R.Federman All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data ISBN 0-203-19731-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-19734-8 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-15954-7 (Print Edition) General Editor’s Preface The reception given to a writer by his contemporaries and near- contemporaries is evidence of considerable value to the student of literature. On one side we learn a great deal about the state of criticism at large and in particular about the development of critical attitudes towards a single writer; at the same time, through private comments in letters, journals or marginalia, we gain an insight upon the tastes and literary thought of individual readers of the period. Evidence of this kind helps us to understand the writer’s historical situation, the nature of his immediate reading-public, and his response to these pressures. The separate volumes in the Critical Heritage Series present a record of this early criticism. Clearly, for many of the highly productive and lengthily reviewed nineteenth-and twentieth-century writers, there exists an enormous body of material; and in these cases the volume editors have made a selection of the most important views, significant for their intrinsic critical worth or for their representative quality— perhaps even registering incomprehension ! For earlier writers, notably pre-eighteenth century, the materials are much scarcer and the historical period has been extended, sometimes far beyond the writer’s lifetime, in order to show the inception and growth of critical views which were initially slow to appear. In each volume the documents are headed by an Introduction, discussing the material assembled and relating the early stages of the author’s reception to what we have come to identify as the critical tradition. The volumes will make available much material which would otherwise be difficult of access and it is hoped that the modern reader will be thereby helped towards an informed understanding of the ways in which literature has been read and judged. B.C.S. Contents page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xiv INTRODUCTION 1 ‘Proust’ (1931) 1 Review in ‘Times Literary Supplement,’ 1931 40 2 BONAMY DOBRÉE in ‘Spectator,’ 1931 41 3 F.S.FLINT in ‘Criterion,’ 1931 42 ‘More Pricks Than Kicks’ (1934) 4 EDWIN MUIR in ‘Listener,’ 1934 44 5 Review in ’Times Literary Supplement,’ 1934 45 ‘Murphy’ (1938) 6 Review in ‘Times Literary Supplement,’ 1938 48 7 DYLAN THOMAS in ‘New English Weekly,’ 1938 50 8 KATE O’BRIEN in ‘Spectator,’ 1938 52 ‘Molloy’ (1951) 9 MAURICE NADEAU in ‘Combat,’ 1951 55 10 GEORGES BATAILLE in ‘Critique,’ 1951 60 11 JEAN POUILLON in ‘Temps modernes,’ 1951 70 12 BERNARD PINGAUD in ‘Esprit,’ 1951 73 vii 13 VIVIAN MERCIER in ‘New Statesman,’ 1955 77 14 PHILIP TOYNBEE in ‘Observer,’ 1955 80 ‘Malone Dies’ (1951) 15 MAURICE NADEAU in ‘Mercure de France,’ 1952 84 ‘Samuel Beckett: an Introduction’ (1952) 16 RICHARD SEAVER in ‘Merlin,’ 1952 86 ‘Waiting for Godot’ (1952–3) 17 SYLVAIN ZEGEL in ‘Libération,’ 1953 95 18 JACQUES LEMARCHAND in ‘Figaro littéraire,’ 1953 97 19 JEAN ANOUILH in ‘Arts-Spectacles,’ 1953 100 20 HAROLD HOBSON in ‘Sunday Times,’ 1955 101 21 KENNETH TYNAN in ‘Observer,’ 1955 104 22 G.s.FRASER in ‘Times Literary Supplement,‘Z 1956 107 23 ERIC BENTLEY in ‘New Republic,’ 1956 114 24 C.B. in ‘San Quentin News,’ 1957 120 25 PIERRE MARCABRU in ‘Arts-Spectacles,’ 1961 124 ‘The Unnamable’ (1953) 26 MAURICE BLANCHOT in ‘Nouvelle Revue francaise,’ 128 1953 ‘Watt’ (1953) 27 RICHARD SEAVER in ‘Nimbus,’ 1953 134 28 ANTHONY HARTLEY in ’Spectator,’ 1953 137 29 RAYMOND JEAN in ‘Monde,’1969 141 30 BERNARD PiNGAUD in ‘Quinzaine littéraire,’ 1969 144 ‘Stories and Texts for Nothing’ (1955) 31 RENÉ LALOU in ‘Nouvelles littéraires,’ 1955 151 viii 32 GENEVIÈVE BONNEFOI in ‘Lettres nouvelles,’ 1956 153 An Interview With Beckett (1956) 33 ISRAEL SHENKER in ‘New York Times,’ 1956 160 ‘All That Fall’ (1957) 34 Review in ‘Times Literary Supplement,’ 1957 165 35 DONALD DAVIE in ‘Spectrum,’ 1958 169 ‘Endgame’ (1957) 36 HAROLD HOBSON in ‘Sunday Times,’ 1957 177 37 KENNETH TYNAN in ‘Observer,’ 1957 180 38 MARC BERNARD in ‘Nouvelles littéraires,’ 1957 183 39 JACQUES LEMARCHAND in ‘Figaro littéraire,’ 1957 185 40 BROOKS ATKINSON in ‘New York Times,’ 1958 188 Working With Beckett (1958) 41 ALAN SCHNEIDER in ‘Chelsca Review,’ 1958 191 ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ (1958) 42 KENNETH TYNAN in ‘Observer,’ 1958 208 43 ROBERT BRUSTEIN in ‘New Republic,’ 1960 213 ‘The Trilogy’ (1959–60) 44 v.s.PRITCHBTT in ‘New Statesman,’ 1960 216 45 FRANK KERMODE in ‘Encounter,’ 1960 220 46 NORTHROP FRYE in ‘Hudson Review,’ 1960 228 Interviews With Beckett (1961) 47 GABRIEL D’AUBARÈDE in ‘Nouvélles littéraires,’ 238 1961 48 TOM DRIVER in ‘Columbia University Forum,’ 1961 241 ix ‘How It Is’ (1961) 49 MAURICE NADEAU in ‘Express,’ 1961 249 50 RAYMOND FEDERMAN in ‘French Review,’ 1961 255 51 JEAN-JACQUES MAYOUX in ‘Mercure de France,‘ 257 1961 52 HUGH KENNER in ‘Spectrum,’ 1961 263 53 Review in ‘Times Literary Supplement,’ 1964 279 54 JOHN UPDIKE in ‘New Yorker,’ 1964 283 ‘Happy Days’ (1961) 55 ROBERT BRUSTEIN in ‘New Republic,’ 1961 287 56 NICEL DENNIS in ‘Encounter,’ 1963 290 57 ALFRED SIMON in ‘Esprit,’ 1963 296 ‘Poems in English’ (1961) 58 DONALD DA VIE in ‘New Statesman,’ 1962 303 ‘Play’ (1964) 59 ROBERT BRUSTEIN in ‘New Republic,’ 1964 305 ‘Film’ (1964) 60 RAYMOND FEDERMAN in ‘Film Quarterly,’ 1966-7 307 ‘Imagination Dead Imagine’ (1965) 61 Review in ‘Times Literary Supplement,’ 1966 316 ‘No’s Knife’ (1967) 62 CHRISTOPHER RICKS in ‘Listener,’ 1967 319 63 DAVID LODGE in ‘Encounter,’ 1968 324 Beckett Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature (1969) 64 Articles in ‘The Times,’ 1969 336