This book provides thirteen essays on every aspect of the work of Samuel Beckett, including his most famous plays and prose fictions, his theatre directing, his poetry, bilingualism, and his relationship to the philosophers.

List of contributors; Preface; Chronology of Beckett's life; List of abbreviations; A note on titles; 1. An endgame in aesthetics: Beckett as essayist Rupert Wood; 2. Beckett's English fiction John Pilling; 3. Three novels and four nouvelles Paul Davies; 4. Waiting for Godot and Endgame: theatre as text Michael Worton; 5. Stages of identity: from Krapp to Play Paul Lawley; 6. Beginning again: the post-narrative art of Texts for Nothing and How It Is H. Porter Abbott; 7. The mediated Quixote: the radio and television plays and film Jonathan Kalb; 8. Dead heads: damnation-narration in the 'dramaticules' Keir Elam; 9. Disabled figures: from the Residua to Stirrings Still Andrew Renton; 10. Beckett's poems and verse translations Roger Little; 11. Beckett as director: the art of mastering failure Anna McMullan; 12. Beckett's bilingualism Ann Beer; 13. Beckett and the philosophers P. J. Murphy; Further reading; Index.