Description

“AN ENTIRELY NEW THEATRICAL LANGUAGE”: EN ATTENDANT GODOT SIGNED BY BECKETT

BECKETT, Samuel. En attendant Godot. Pièce en Deux Actes. (Paris): Éditions de Minuit, 1952. Small octavo, original white paper wrappers, uncut.

First trade edition of Samuel Beckett’s greatest and most influential play—“what it has to offer is a landmark in life” (New York Times)—signed by Beckett on the title page.

“One of the most influential plays of the post-war period” and a central document of the Absurdist school, En attendantGodot earned Beckett worldwide acclaim (Drabble, 1038). After World War II Beckett began to write in French, a language he felt was better suited than English to his vision of literature. Although he finished En attendant Godot in 1946, the play was rejected by six Paris publishers before its publication in this 1952 first edition of 2500 copies. “The date of its first [Paris] performance-Jan. 3, 1953-would be pricked out in gold in the annals of the stage…There is something of everyone in this play, and something of everywhere, too. That is why what it has to offer is a landmark in life” (New York Times). By the end of the decade, the play seen in London and later New York in his own translation as Waiting for Godot. Beckett’s drama revolutionized modern drama, abandoning “conventional structure and development in both plot and dialogue in order to present a dramatic vision of the human predicament in a world in which mankind seems to have no place. His two tramps, indecisive and incapable of action, wait hopefully for help which never comes. This epoch-making play is now regarded as one of the masterpieces of the Theatre of the Absurd” (Hartnoll, 66). “Beckett’s work invented an entirely new theatrical language, palpable and comprehensible images of the absurd, and unforgettable metaphors of the human condition” (Hollier, 1010). Text in French. First trade edition; preceded by only 35, quite rare, numbered copies in wrappers. Without scarce original glassine. Mahaffey, 217. Lake, 126.

Light toning to paper, less than usual. About-fine condition, scarce signed and in this condition.