<p>Samuel Beckett's celebrated early study of Marcel proust, whose theories of time were to play a large part in his own work, was written in 1931. It is a brilliant work of critical insight that also tells us much about its author's own thinking and preoccupations. In its own right it is a masterpiece of literary and philosophical creative writing. This edition was published in 1999 - ten years after the writer's death. The volume also contains the equally celebrated dialogues with the art critic Georges Duthuit - written to record their different points of view after the discussions took place. Beckett always let Duthuit win, but his very unusual and often opposite point of view on the nature and purpose of art is all the more forceful and memorable on that account.</p>

Proust and Three Dialogues

Literature & Fiction

BECKETT,SAMUEL

British & Irish

John Calder

Murphy, Samuel Beckett’s first published novel, is set in London and Dublin, during the first decades of the Irish Republic. The title character loves Celia in a striking case of love requited” but must first establish himself in London before his intended bride will make the journey from Ireland to join him. Beckett comically describes the various schemes that Murphy employs to stretch his meager resources and the pastimes that he uses to fill the hours of his days. Eventually Murphy lands a job as a nurse at Magdalen Mental Mercyseat hospital, where he is drawn into the mad world of the patients which ends in a fateful game of chess. While grounded in the comedy and absurdity of much of daily life, Beckett’s work is also an early exploration of themes that recur throughout his entire body of work including sanity and insanity and the very meaning of life.

Murphy

Literary

Arnold Schoenberg

Stuckenschmidt, H. H. (Arnold schoenberg)

Molloy

The Naked Lunch

BURROUGHS, WILLIAM

Classics

The Price of Genius: A Life of Pauline Viardot

Biographies & Memoirs

FitzLyon, April

Arts & Literature

Tropic of Capricorn

MILLER, HENRY

Contemporary

First Love (Beckett Shorts) (v. 8)

SAMUEL BECKETT

In these vivid and anecdotal memoirs, Giulio Gatti-Casazza, one of the twentieth century’s most successful impresarios, tells of his long reign in two of the world’s most famous opera houses: a decade at La Scala in Milan, followed by twenty-seven years at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. With an inimitable tone, Gatti relates an astonishing wealth of history, including an impressive cast of personal friends numbering Verdi, Puccini, Debussy and many more. Gatti’s memoirs are totally unimpeded either by time or by their sheer content, recollecting in extraordinary detail his earliest musical experiences that led to a lifelong inspiration. Most remarkable is Gatti’s never-failing self-awareness, always appreciative of his role in cultural history, but never boastful of his talents. He commits his memories of opera’s golden age to paper, he says, only for posterity – and they serve posterity well.

Memories of the Opera

Arts & Photography

Gatti-Casazza, Giulio

Music

An enquiry into the social views of Elizabeth Bowen, L. P. Hartley, Rosamund Lehman, Christopher Isherwood, Nancy Mitford and C. P. Snow.

Six Novelists Look at Society

Atkins, John

History & Criticism

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Books by John Calder