Beckett's Eighteenth Century

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Frederik N. Smith

   Pages 1-9

3. Beckett Reads the Eighteenth Century

   • Frederik N. Smith

   Pages 10-26

4. “Hiatus in MS”: Swift and Beckett

   • Frederik N. Smith

   Pages 27-46

5. Beckett and the Eighteenth-Century Novel

   • Frederik N. Smith

   Pages 47-67

6. “Gentle Skimmer”: Reader Entrapment in Swift, Fielding, Sterne, and Beckett

   • Frederik N. Smith

   Pages 68-89

7. Beckett’s Literary Gerontophilia

   • Frederik N. Smith

   Pages 90-109

8. “My Johnson Fantasy”

   • Frederik N. Smith

   Pages 110-131

9. Pope, Beckett, and the Aesthetics of Decay

   • Frederik N. Smith

   Pages 132-155

10. Conclusion

    • Frederik N. Smith

    Pages 156-164

11. Back Matter

    Pages 165-219

    PDF

Beckett's Eighteenth Century is the first book-length study of Samuel Beckett's affinity with the British eighteenth century and of the influence of its writers on his work. Reading Swift, Pope, Defoe, Fielding, Sterne, Johnson, Gray, and other writers of this period, this study demonstrates how he was not only influenced by them but interprets them for us in a quite modern way. Beckett's uniqueness is not questioned here, but this uniqueness is shown, paradoxically, to have its roots at least in part in his native literature of two centuries ago.

• Beckett
• Defoe
• English literature
• novel
• Samuel Beckett
• British and Irish Literature

'...a convincing and detailed study...Stimulating, meticulously researched, Beckett's Eighteenth Century is the first book-length study of Beckett's involvement with eighteenth-century literature and argues convincingly that part of his originality is derived precisely from his study of these writers.' - Times Literary Supplement

• University of North Carolina, Charlotte, USA

  Frederik N. Smith

FREDERIK SMITH is Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

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