Beckett's Dying Words

Most people most of the time want to live for ever. But there is another truth: the longing for oblivion. With pain, wit, and humour, the art of Samuel Beckett variously embodies this truth, this ancient enduring belief that it is better to be dead than alive, best of all never to have been born. Beckett is the supreme writer of an age which has created new possibilities and impossibilities even in the matter of death and its definition, an age of transplants andlife-support.But how does a writer give life to dismay at life itself, to the not-simply-unwelcome encroachments of death? After all, it is for the life, the vitality of theirlanguage that we value writers. As a young man, Beckett himself praised Joyce's words. `They are alive'.Beckett became himself as a writer when he realized in his very words a principle of death. In clichés, which are dead but won't lie down. In a dead language and its memento mori. In words which mean their own opposites, cleaving and cleaving. In the self-stultifying or even suicidal turn dubbed the Irish bull. In what Beckett called a syntax ofweakness.This book explores the relation between deep convictions about life or death and the incarnations which these take in the exact turns of a great writer, the realizations of an Irishman whowrote in English and in French, two languages with different apprehensions of life and of death.

“'this is one of the best books ever written about Beckett...A work of criticism so lucid and penetrating, so alive to the language it considers, that the adjective 'joyous' isn't too out of place...it is scrupulously annotated, extraordinarily wide-ranging and (natch) beautifully written'The Guardian”

Claims for Beckett's comedy often seem forced, but Christopher Ricks makes a masterly and sensitive advocacy for his wild laughter in Beckett's Dying Words.'Plays International Sept 1999Rick's fascinates, teases and enriches our understanding'Sunday TelegraphMore inventive and entertaining to read than most contemporary novels or books of poetry'Sunday Telegraph'His erudition in literary matters is prodigious, his equal love and suspicion of words is palpable. In a word he is ideally qualified as a reader of the Beckett who long sought to wield no's knife to slit yes's throat. Beckett's Dying Words is a lively book ... a lovely book. The book responds to the pleasures available in Beckett's texts by providing its own in abundance.'Gerry Dukes, The Irish Timesthis is one of the best books ever written about Beckett...A work of criticism so lucid and penetrating, so alive to the language it considers, that the adjective 'joyous' isn't too out of place...it is scrupulously annotated, extraordinarily wide-ranging and (natch) beautifully written'The Guardianchallenging new view of a writer whose work is often misunderstood ... Beckett's Dying Words is a valuable contribution to the study of the language of Beckett, and language itself.'S.J. Caterson, Monash University, Quadrant, May 1994...a wonderful book, glitteringly intelligent, funny, impassioned, enjoyable as only a few books of criticism have been in decades ...profoundly serious in intent and in achievement. Ricks shows over and over again that while Beckett is a marvellous writer in French, in English he is one of the handful of the irreplaceable.'Lucy Becket, The Tablet'Christopher Ricks ... does Beckett the honour of taking Beckett's writing seriously ... More than just criticism, the book turns into an anthology, a cento: an original work itself. This is the aptest introduction to Beckett we have.'Sunday Telegraph'He is our best and tricksiest practitioner of the "close-reading" style of criticism, getting right into the springs and joints of language ... Ricks and Beckett make a wonderful double act as graveyard comedians; this is a funereal feast of a book.'Sunday Times'Ricks gives Beckett's passionate hang-dog mind and his morbid pleasure in the contrariness of words their full due in this immensely enjoyable study.'Robin Blake, Independent on Sunday`Ricks and Beckett make a wonderful double act as gravyard comedians: this is a funereal feast of a book.'Times of India

Christopher Ricks is one of our foremost literary critics, and has written, amongst others, Milton's Grand Style, The Force of Poetry, Keats and Embarrassment, and the New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse.

Most people most of the time want to live for ever. But there is another truth; the longing for oblivion. With pain, wit, and humour, the art of Samuel Beckett variously embodies this truth, this ancient enduring belief that it is better to be dead than alive, best of all never to have been born. Beckett is the supreme writer of an age which has created new possiblities and impossibilities even in the matter of death and its definition, an age of transplants and life-support. But how does a writer give life to dismay at life itself, to the not-simply-unwelcome encroachments of death? After all, it is for the life, the vitality, of their language that we value writers. As a young man, Beckett himself praised Joyce's words. `They are alive.' Beckett became himself as a writer when he realized in his very words a principle of death. In cliches, which are dead but won't lie down. In a dead language and its memento mori. In words which mean their own opposites, cleaving and cleaving. In the self-stultifying or suicidal turn, dubbed the Irish bull. In what Beckett called a syntax of weakness. This book explores the relation between deep convictions about life or death and the incarnations which these take in the exact turns of a great writer - the realizations of an Irishman who wrote in English and in French, two languages with different apprehensions of life and of death.

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