James Knowlson: Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett

Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett


Description

Damned to Fame is the brilliant and insightful portrait of Nobel Prize-winning author Samuel Beckett, mysterious and reclusive master of twentieth-century literature. Professor James Knowlson, Beckett's chosen biographer and a leading authority on Beckett, vividly recreates Beckett's life from his birth in a rural suburb of Dublin in 1906 to his death in Paris in 1989, revealing the real man behind the literary giant. Scrupulously researched and filled with previously unknown information garnered from interviews with the author and his friends, family, and contemporaries, Knowlson's unparalleled work is the definitive Beckett biography of our time. Nearing the end of his life, Samuel Beckett chose James Knowlson to be his biographer because he "knows my work best." One of the world's leading authorities on Beckett, Knowlson has drawn on his twenty-year friendship with the Nobel Prize winner, more than one hundred interviews, and research in dozens of archival collections-many previously untapped by scholars-to produce this definitive biography of one of hte century's leading writers in both English and French. Damned to Fame follows teh reclusive literary giant's life from his birth in Foxrock, a rural suburb of Dublin, in 1906 to his death in Paris in 1989. Knowlson brilliantly re-creates Beckett's early years as a struggling author in Paris, his travels through Germany in 1936-37 as the Nazis were consolidating their power, his service in the French Resistance during World War II, and the years of literary fame and financial success that followed the first performance of his controversial Waiting For Godot (1953). Paris between the wars was a city vibrant with experimentation, both in the arts and in personal lifestyle, and Knowlson introduces us to the writers and painters who, along with the young Beckett, populated his bohemian community. Most notable was James Joyce, a fellow Irishman who became Beckett's friend and mentor and influenced him to devote his life to writing. We also meet the women in Beckett's life-his domineering mother, May; his cousin Peggy Sinclair, who died at a tragically young age; Ethna McCarthy, his first love, whom he immortalized in his poetry and prose; Peggy Guggenheim, the American heiress and patron of the arts; and the strong and independent Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil, whom he met in the late 1930s and married in 1961. Beyond recounting many previously unknown aspects of the writer's life, including his strong support for human rights and other political causes, Knowlson explores in fascinating detail teh roots of Beckett's works. He shows not only how the relationship between Beckett's own experiences and his work became more oblique over time, but also how his startling postmodern images were inspired by the paintings of the Old Masters, such as Antonello da Messina, Durer, Rembrandt, and Caravaggio. Perhaps most striking of all is Knowlson's portrait of Beckett's complex personality. Although Beckett is often depicted as melancholic, self-critical, and intensely preoccupied with his work, his own letters reveal him to have been also a witty, resilient, and compassionate man who could respond to adversity with humor and who inspired deep affection in his friends.

Eleven-year-old ace detective Laura Marlin finds herself deep in the murky world of race-fixing, trickery and horse thieves in her third mystery adventure, Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett free epub from award-winning author Lauren St John. Laura Marlin's two greatest loves in life are detective novels and animals, so she is ecstatic when her uncle agrees to let her keep a horse after they rescue it, crazed with fear, from an overturned horsebox. But before he will allow her to adopt it they have to find its former owner, just to ensure that it hasn't been stolen. A visit to Newmarket to investigate the thoroughbred's origins leads Laura to the Kentucky Derby in the US and deep into the murky world of race-fixing. Katniss Everdeen. What happens next? A Street Rat becomes a leader. A princess becomes a revolutionary. And readers will never look at the story of "Aladdin" in the same way again.


____________________________
Author: James Knowlson
Number of Pages: 832 pages
Published Date: 01 May 2004
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
Publication Country: New York, NY, United Kingdom
Language: English
ISBN: 9780802141255
Download Link: Click Here
____________________________

Tags:

download torrent, ebook, download pdf, facebook, free ebook, James Knowlson paperback,download torrent, iOS, epub download, ebook pdf, Read online, kindle, iPhone, mobi, book review, iPad,download epub, free pdf, fb2, for mac, download book,download torrent Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett by James Knowlson zip, Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett pocket,paperback, pocket, rarzip, download ebook, for PC,

An Open Swimmer
Mine! download pdf, epub