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RR 2007/136 A Samuel Beckett Chronology John Pilling Palgrave Basingstoke and New York, NY 2006 xviii + 265 pp. ISBN 978 1 4039 4651 5 £55/$79.95
Author Chronologies
Keywords English literature, Ireland
Review DOI 10.1108/09504120710738201
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) won the 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature following in the footsteps of such distinguished Irish born winners as William Butler Yeats in 1923, George Bernard Shaw in 1925 and subsequently in 1995 by Seamus Heaney. The notable exception is of course perhaps the greatest of them all, James Joyce (1882-1941). Joyce's life intersected with Beckett's. As Pilling indicates in his "Who's Who" to his Chronology, they were introduced in Novembe 1928. It appears, although the story is still incomplete, that Joyce's brilliant but disturbed daughter Lucia became obsessed with Beckett who failed to respond appropriately to her overtures. Beckett's treatment of Lucia led to an estrangement between Joyce and Beckett, although they were subsequently reconciled.
Inevitably, with a recently deceased and secretive writer such as Beckett, many personal details have yet to emerge. This especially applies to Beckett's activities during the Second World War when he was a very active member of at least one Resistance Network which he apparently joined on 1 September 1941. He seems to have...