Selected Works of Beckett (4): How

Author: Samuel Beckett (French)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: On April 13th of this year, it was the 100th anniversary of the birth of the world-renowned writer Samuel Beckett. Hunan Literature and Art Press launched "Beckett's Selected Works." The entire set consists of 5 volumes and 1.25 million words, compiling all of Beckett's works written in French after he settled in Paris, France, arranged chronologically. It was translated primarily by Yu Zhongxian, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and editor-in-chief of "World Literature." Samuel Beckett won the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his novel and dramatic works, which, in their peculiar form, have brought the modern man out of spiritual exhaustion." However, in China, many people's understanding of him is limited to his famous work "Waiting for Godot." It is reported that Beckett's formal literary career began with novel writing and poetry, and he wrote far more novels than plays. From a literary expression perspective, Beckett excelled at portraying the elusive and delicate inner world. The novel, as a more personalized form, was more suited to him. His trilogy of novels in French, "Molloy," "Malone Dies," and "The Unnamable," broke tradition by de-emphasizing plot and characters, leaving only monologues of rambling inner thoughts. This writing style directly led to literary experiments in the French New Novel movement. Many critics believe that this trilogy is more powerful and significant than "Waiting for Godot," and few modern literary works offer such a profound understanding of human experience. During his lifetime, it was widely said internationally that Borges, Nabokov, and Beckett were the three greatest living writers. However, in China, Beckett's novels were largely ignored, which can be considered a great loss for Chinese translation circles. The 5-volume "Beckett's Selected Works" launched by Hunan Literature and Art this time includes the "Molloy" trilogy, which can be said to largely compensate for this lack.