Overview
Not only does this book contain major analyses of Beckett's essay Proust, and of his first unpublished novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, but also discussions of his latest prose works, Company, Ill Seen, Ill Said and Westward Ho. Contents: Proust and Critical Perspectives; Positive Modes of Existence in A la recherche du temps perdu; Negative Modes of Existence in A la recherche du temps perdu; Nihilistic Modes of Existence in A la recherche du temps perdu; Beckett's Prousts-The Singular and the Multipe; Beckett's Interpretation of the 'Albertine Tragedy'; Beckett and the 'Paradox' of the 'Mystical Experience'; Beckett and Critical Perspectives; Beckett, Proust, and Dream of Fair to Middling Women; The Evolution of Beckett's Early Fictional Vision in More Pricks Than Kicks and Murphy; Watt and the Problem of Intelligibility; Beckett's Mature Fiction-From 'Shit' to 'Shades'; Conclusion: 'not life/necessarily'óBeckett's 'Shades'; Notes; Selected Bibliography; Index