Texts for Nothing and Other Shorter Prose This is the last of three volumes of collected shorter prose to be published in the Faber edition of the works of Samuel Beckett which already includes a volume of early stories The Expelled The Calma

This is the last of three volumes of collected shorter prose to be published in the Faber edition of the works of Samuel Beckett which already includes a volume of early stories The Expelled The Calmative The End First Love and of late stories Company Ill Seen Ill Said Worstward Ho Stirrings Still The present volume contains all of the short fictions some of them no lThis is the last of three volumes of collected shorter prose to be published in the Faber edition of the works of Samuel Beckett which already includes a volume of early stories The Expelled The Calmative The End First Love and of late stories Company Ill Seen Ill Said Worstward Ho Stirrings Still The present volume contains all of the short fictions some of them no longer than a page written and published by Beckett between 1950 and the early 1970s Most were written in French, and they mostly belong within three loose sequences Texts for Nothing, Fizzles and Residua The edition also includes two remarkable independent narratives From an Abandoned Work and As The Story Was Told All of these texts, whose unsleeping subject is themselves, demonstrate that the short story is one of the recurrent modes of Becketts imagination, and occasions some of his greatest works.he would like it to be my fault that words fail him, of course words fail him He tells his story every five minuts, saying it is not his, there s cleverness for you He would like it to be my fault that he has no story, of course he has no story, that s no reason for trying to foist one on me

One thought on “Texts for Nothing and Other Shorter Prose 1950-1976”

1. MJ Nicholls on Sep 19, 2018 said:

   Bitesize Beckett for the squeamish. The ‘Texts for Nothing’ continue Sam’s obssesion with first-person nameless clueless narrators exploring a claustrophobic space while hardcore tripping on unreliable memories. ‘Enough’ is a rare female-narrated text from Sam including some sinister sexual stuff amid the usual elliptical prose. Stories ‘All Strange Away’ and ‘Imagination Dead Imagine’ are in his challenging ‘scientific’ mode, stripped of the usual melodic bounce and moment [...]

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2. Jim on Sep 19, 2018 said:

   I thought I'd read some more Beckett prose before I picked up my next Lee Child, and that worked well, some real reading before mindless relaxation, like moving from porridge to Co-Co Pops.Texts for Nothing is a ragbag, pieces from here and there, doubts whether they were ready for publication or published correctly. Beckett was moving away from prose to concentrate on his drama. This apparent uncertainty of purpose adds to the usual broth of wandering, ranting, pointless circuits and dubious ex [...]

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3. Alex on Sep 19, 2018 said:

   I tried, I really did, but I just didn't 'get' it. I shall be sticking to his drama in future.

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4. Astrid on Sep 19, 2018 said:

   this is basically beckett being extremely beckett-esque. so if you're a fan, just go for it; otherwise, you've been warned.

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