Customer Reviews
I can't go on, I'll go on. - By: Harry O'Carpus, 18 Aug 2008 
Sadly, when I first read Beckett I was a mildly pretentious English Literature undergraduate, attracted by a writer who I thought of as bleak & intense.
Revisiting him years later, I'm amazed by how often I laughed aloud while ploughing through this volume. In these days of "LOL" being used at the end of every sentence by anyone who thinks they've typed some sort of witticism, it's a thing of wonder to find oneself actually guffawing while reading such a brilliantly funny, yet substantial writer.
I think it's telling that I found the trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, & The Unnameable) hard-going when I was 18. I know full well why: I was trying to be too clever by halfin my reading of it. Instead of being academic about it, read them as though you're reading them aloud, & if you can, with an Irish accent - it's then that the rhythms of the prose really come alive. These are wonderfully entertaining works that ruminate cheekily on the futility of human existence.
It's unfortunate that the box set of the four volumes of the Grove Centenary Edition is now unavailable; it's a lovely thing & beautifully presented. But really, you can't get better value than this. Amazon want just over eleven quid for a fine hardback edition of four novels by one of the great writersin English. Click the big yellow button. Go on.
mananam - By: R. Kiely, 06 Jan 2007 This is the closest thing to a Collected Works of Samuel Beckett that could be donein English. All it's missingin Dream of Dair to Middling Woman & Eleutheria, as the editor points out. I ordered all 4 volumes together (because the boxed set is unavailable for some reason) & have not been disappointed. Samuel Beckett, I already knew, is an amazing writer. I had read all his plays & am currently awe-struck by his novels. If you've read anything by him & still have it stuckin your head, these are a great buy, & an even better read. Anyone who likes James Joyce, Franz Kafka or Albert Camus should definitely read a bit of Beckett.
Blugh - By: R. Kiely, 06 Jan 2007 This is the closest thing to a Collected Works of Samuel Beckett that could be donein English. All it's missingin Dream of Dair to Middling Woman & Eleutheria, as the editor points out. I ordered all 4 volumes together (because the boxed set is unavailable for some reason) & have not been disappointed. Samuel Beckett, I already knew, is an amazing writer. I had read all his plays & am currently awe-struck by his novelsIf you've read anything by him & still have it stuckin your head, these are a great buy, & an even better read. Anyone who likes James Joyce, Franz Kafka or Albert Camus should definitely read a bit of Beckett.
This is Volume 2. - By: R. Kiely, 06 Jan 2007 Firstly, this is volume 2 of this series, the closest thing to a Collected Works of Samuel Beckett that could be donein English. All it's missingin Dream of Dair to Middling Woman & Eleutheria, as the editor points out. I ordered all 4 volumes together (because the boxed set is unavailable for some reason) & have not been disappointed. Samuel Beckett, I already knew, is an amazing writer. I had read all his plays & am currently awe-struck by his novelsIf you've read anything by him & still have it stuckin your head, these are a great buy, & an even better read. Anyone who likes James Joyce, Franz Kafka or Albert Camus should definitely read a bit of Beckett.
