What follows is a partial listing of the novels, plays, stories, poetry, and essays written by Samuel Beckett, along with the translations of the same if done by him, whether from English into French or French into English, with the dates of their writing, publication, and translation, where appropriate, and comprising those plays, novels, essays, poetry, and stories that I feel might not be unjustly called "major." The title is given in the language in which each was written originally, along with the English title, if the original title is not, in fact, English.

The author of this webpage begs the readers not to inform him of the previously acknowledged incompleteness of this bibliography, but to keep in the foremost parts of their brainpans that it is intended to be representative rather than comprehensive.

All of the information found herein was culled by me from various sources, including perhaps most notably I Can't Go On, I'll Go On. This book is itself a collection of the essays, stories, novels, poetry, and plays written and translated by Samuel Beckett, including those that the author felt might be not unjustly referred to as "major" without giving great offense to his audience (which, admittedly is much larger and more scholarly than mine).

The works are listed by format primarily, chronology of writing secondarily, chronology of publication tertiarily, and chronology of translation quartiarily. Because of the relatively limited amount of stories, essays, and poetry that warrant inclusion in this list, these types of writing have been concatenated under a single heading. Under the heading of each work I have included, perhaps indulgently, a brief synopsis and personal rumination of that work. These are inevitably subjective and inexcusably trite.

Novels

Dream of Fair to Middling Women

This is really the first novel ever written by Beckett, but it was rejected by publishers at the time. He must not have thought much of it, because it was never published until after his death.

Murphy

This is the first novel published by Beckett (but not the first written), and it reflects his apprenticeship under James Joyce. Here, for the first time, we see the agonized protagonist yearning for self-knowledge, or at least complete freedom of thought at any cost, and the dichotomy and interaction of mind and body (in some rare characters, both may be hearty; more often both are decrepit, or one is hearty while the other is decrepit). The characters are colorful, the scenes are well-drawn.

Above all in the mind of the author of this website, this novel is remarkably funny. My roommate can attest that I often laughed aloud while reading Murphy.

Watt

Mercier et Camier (Mercier and Camier)

Molloy

This is the first in a trilogy collected under the accurate title Three Novels. It has two parts: the first featuring Molloy as the protagonist, and the second featuring Moran as the protagonist.

Molloy is more physically pathetic than any previous Beckett protagonist, yet his logic is maddeningly precise (this mental feature is a common one in Beckett's work). Over the course of the novel, Molloy journeys from one ditch to a different ditch in search of something and encountering several obstacles on the way. Here Beckett has, in my opinion, most perfectly matched writing style with subject matter. Although the first part is almost entirely a single chapter, I find it difficult to read much at a single sitting without approaching madness myself. Never in my history of literary consumption have I been affected by the writing itself as much as by the meaning of the sentences or the poetry of the phrases.

The second part describes Moran's search for Molloy. Physically, he is far superior than his prey, yet he is too complex and well-created to be reduced to a strict obverse of Molloy's reverse.

This was the first Beckett novel I attempted and it remains my favorite. As with the rest of the ouvre, it is hysterically funny (cf. the description of Molloy's "sucking-stone" rotation and his visit with his mother).

Malone Meurt (Malone Dies)

The slim middle entry in the trilogy. Blurb coming soon.

L'Innomable (The Unnameable)

The culmination of the trilogy's Cartesian search. Blurb coming soon.

Comment C'est (How It Is)

In part one, something gets abused by something else. In part two, that something abuses another something. In part three, it moves on to either abuse or be abused.

Worstward Ho

Plays

En Attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot)

This is the best-known work of Beckett, which fact neither upholds nor negates the assertion that it is his most accomplished. It presents many of the ideas, idioms, references, styles, and phrases that he uses throughout his work. It is funny, brutal, tragic, and, without being sentimental in the least, touching.

Fin de Partie (Endgame)

Along with Waiting for Godot, this play forms the most prominent point of interest in the Beckettian landscape. Movement is reduced to almost nothing, the humor is rarer and darker, and the methods of inquiry, induction, and deduction used by the characters are as ruthless as the facts that they use for materia menta. The scenario echoes King Lear and as always, Shakespeare and the Bible are the main referents.

Although the general impression is almost unbearably grim (the play is apparently about the end of existence), rereadings reveal a remarkable depth of expression and revelation that may exceed anything else Beckett wrote.

Krapp's Last Tape

In the form of a gradated reminiscence, Becket has Krapp, a typical protagonist, represent progression (and regression and transgression) through time. The litanies of heartbreak, hopes deferred, and time and effort passing by are beautifully and succinctly presented, allowing the reader/viewer/listener to compare and contrast the statements made at different ages by Krapp, who is always the same man and always different men. This short play is set in a more conventional world, which makes it among the most accessible of Beckett's works.

The key innovation in this play is that the dialogue is mainly recorded on tape beforehand, and the old Krapp plays different reels in succession. This use of a new medium as a necessary component of the play is on an entirely different plane than what is typically called "multimedia presentation."

I confess that this is one of my favorites and it can still induce my tears.

Happy Days

The main character in this happy little play is a woman! This is a rarity in Beckett, peraps the only occurence. What's more odd, she is buried up to her waist.

This is a play to be seen rather than read. The precise stage directions outnumber the spoken words. As always, Beckett pushed theater into new territory.

Cascando

Film

Starring Buster Keaton! What is Beckett without his words? This film shows the answer. A very old Buster looks the part (he was probably the ideal actor for Beckett, with his nonpareil combination of the clown and the solipsist), and he scurries around a bleak landscape as much as his decrepit body allows. Although it's interesting, the film seems a little hollow and vague without the master's brilliant internal and external dialogues. This hardly matters, since you'll never find a copy anywhere.

Essays, Poetry, Stories

Dante...Bruno.Vico..Joyce.

This was Beckett's contribution to the collection of explication of Joyce's versification that would become Finnegan's Wake called Our Exagmination Round His Factification For Incamination Of Work In Progress. It is one of the first pieces of his writing to be published and it demonstrates his remarkable eruditionand scholarship. Some prior knowledge of his subject matter (and of his methods of reasoning) is almost essential to understanding the essay.

Whoroscope

This poem is ostensibly about Descartes. According to Beckett's own notes on it, one would require extensive knowledge of Descartes's personal habits and life, in addition to his philosophy, in order to comprehend most of the passages. In style, it more than imitates The Wasteland.

The value of Whoroscope is its demonstration of the young Beckett's familiarity with his avant garde peers and his considerable skill at wordplay, especially when it is discovered that he wrote it in a single day so that he could win a poetry competition.

Proust

I would greatly appreciate any informarion about obtaining this volume. One of my favorite authors explicates one of my other favorites (like Nabokov's lectures on Joyce!).

Echo's Bones

A collection of poetry. Poetry plays the same role for Beckett as it does for Joyce: it's there, it was an opportunity to learn, it's interesting, it is not essential. As always, Beckett is a master of words, but these poems are probably the most inscrutable of all of his works.

More Pricks Than Kicks

Tales of Belacqua Shuah, named after Beckett's favorite character in The Divine Comedy. Belacqua is a prototype protagonist: He has some physical difficulties, a great capacity for intellectual musing, eccentric sensual pleasures, and a distinct alienation from everyone else. Yet he seems younger, more brutish, and less mentally refined than his yet uncreated brethren.

L'Expulse (The Expelled)

Nouvelles et Textes pour Rien (Stories and Texts for Nothing)

Imagination morte imaginez (Imagination Dead Imagine)

This is a brief vignette describing what might be the place for which Murphy longed. The scene is sterile, silent, and stylized. Again, the idea of dichotomy (mind/body as well as others) is prevalent, but here the world is entirely reduced to only dichotomy: two people physically arranged in geometric apposition and time cycling rhythmically between darkness and light without variation. It's an interesting piece that resists interpretation but seems to flow with the Beckettian stream anyway.