Description
“I started writing Godot to relax, to escape the horrible prose I was writing at the time,the wild anarchy of novels”
First edition of this major play by Beckett, masterpiece of the theater of the absurd.
A very beautiful copy, preserved in publisher’s wrappers, as issued.
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Beckett, Samuel. En attendant Godot.
Paris, Editions de Minuit, 1952.
12mo, publisher’s wrappers.
186 x 118 mm.
First edition of this major play of the theater of the absurd.
Federman & Fletcher 259; Vignes, n° 154 ; KNLL II, S. 377f ; En Français dans le texte, n° 395.
Copy of the ordinary edition, limited to 2000 copies, after only 35 copies on superior vellum.
“A post-World War II existential play belonging solidly to the tradition of the “Theatre of the Absurd.” Federman & Fletcher 259.
“This play about the absurdity of the human condition was created by Roger Blin on January 5, 1953 at the Théâtre Babylone in Paris. After a stormy start, its success will grow until it becomes one of the most performed titles of the contemporary repertoire” (Vignes, n°154).
Beckett began writing En attendant Godot in 1948. Published by Jérôme Lindon, then head of Éditions de Minuit, the play was first performed in January 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone. If the first performances caused a scandal, the success of this text has never been denied since, making a milestone in the history of theater.
“En attendant Godot, which suddenly made its author famous in 1953, confirms this fundamental idea of Beckett’s: man is the one who must speak. Two ageless remnants of men wait, indistinguishable, on a stage, in front of an audience that is constantly taken to task, for a man named Godot, Godet or Godin — God in any case — who must come, if at least the apology of the two thieves is founded […]. The scene takes place somewhere in this fucking land […]. The clowning of Wladimir and Estragon and the funny story we are promised are indeed evidence of this black humor whose laughter tears, because Beckett holds up to the mirror our face denied by the absence of God” (Sylvie Collot, En Français dans le texte, n° 395).
“In January 1952, in a letter to Michel Polac, Beckett explains: “I don’t know any more about this play than anyone who reads it carefully. [I don’t know who Godot is. I don’t even know, especially not, if he exists. […] As for wanting to find a wider and higher meaning to all this, to take away after the show, with the program and the ice lollies, I am unable to see the point. But it must be possible”.
A very beautiful copy, preserved in publisher’s wrappers, as issued.
