Beckett's Eighteenth Century [Hardcover]

Beckett's Eighteenth Century is the first book-length study of Samuel Beckett's affinity with the British eighteenth century and of the influence of its writers on his work. Reading Swift, Pope, Defoe, Fielding, Sterne, Johnson, Gray, and other writers of this period, this study demonstrates how he was not only influenced by them but interprets them for us in a quite modern way. Beckett's uniqueness is not questioned here, but this uniqueness is shown, paradoxically, to have its roots at least in part in his native literature of two centuries ago.List of Illustrations Introduction Reading the Eighteenth Century 'Hiatus in MS': Swift and Beckett Beckett and the Eighteenth Century Novel 'Gentle Skimmer': Reader Entrapment in Swift, Fielding, Sterne, and Beckett Beckett's Literary Gerontophilia 'My Johnson Fantasy' Pope, Beckett, and the Aesthetics of Decay Conclusion Appendices Index

'...a convincing and detailed study...Stimulating, meticulously researched, Beckett's Eighteenth Century is the first book-length study of Beckett's involvement with eighteenth-century literature and argues convincingly that part of his originality is derived precisely from his study of these writers.' - Times Literary Supplement