Book Description
A seminal work of twentieth century drama, Waiting for Godot was Samuel Beckett's first professionally produced play. It opened in Paris in 1953 at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone, and has since become a cornerstone of twentieth-century theater. The story line revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone — or something — named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree on a barren stretch of road, inhabiting a drama spun from their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as a somber summation of mankind's inexhaustible search for meaning. Beckett's language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existentialism of post-World War II Europe. His play remains one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time.
Customer Reviews:
like a moth to a flame..........2007-09-28
I really can't explain my love of this play...at least not very well. I read this in a course centering on Faulkner, Joyce, and Beckett...so to say that we read some challenging texts is an understatement. This was a delightful breath of fresh air in its brevity but impressive in its complexity.
If, when reading this, you open up your interpretation beyond the obvious, you can riddle your mind with maddening contradictions and uncomfortable conclusions - aren't those the best kind of things to take away from a text? This play is suspenseful, hilarious, but most of all, extremely tragic. This may not be your cup of tea, but at least respect this web of futility that will either drive you to despair or to action. I mean, let's be honest...I'd like to see YOU try this :)
Masterpiece of Nothingness.......2007-09-20
Many parts of this play are comically driven - many are not. And, the majority are neither - or so Beckett may have said as part of his stylistic prank on the reader. Beckett had a target, and he would smile at his target as much as permitted. His dripping dialogue is often interpreted with misinterpretation, misidentification, miscue. That part of the play is resoundingly great.
To not have read this, but experienced it the first time as a member of the audience, may be asking too much of the auditory skills- asking them to constantly respond to clever and contrarian statements which spill off the characters' tongues almost every third or fifth line. One favorite discourse which evidences how fast and clever it can be: "We're in no danger of ever thinking any more." "Then what are we complaining about?" "Thinking is not the worst." "Maybe not. But at least there's that" "That what?" "That's the idea, let's ask each other questions." "What do you mean, at least there's that?" "That much less misery."
Reading thickly carved conceptions like that recited above can easily make one receive and learn more with each reading. This is one of those plays that I could read over and over again, and each time realize something totally new with each reading. This is a "deep" thinking piece of literature.
So who is Godot? Who knows. What does he represent? Who knows. What is the reason that Vladimir and Estragon wait for Godot? Who knows. Are there religious interpretations? Yes. Is God recreated in Godot? After all, Estragon has a nickname - Gogo. Vladimir has a nickname - Didi. Is God a nickname for Godot? If you want to believe such, so believe. Possible religious interpretations are infinite. They absolutely exist. The book starts with discussion of the Bible, and reading of it and some misinterpretation of a proverb. But, beware. Beckett is a master of literary illusion - are the words delivered to portray their nothingness, or by their juxtaposition can the meaningless became most meaningful? Is the Bible part of that "nothingness?"
Sounds almost mean as much as words. The sound of Godot - pronounced the same in English as the original French (Irish Beckett lived in France and wrote in French) - is one example of sound perhaps trumping meaning or definition. One character - Pozzo - is called Bozzo (we grew up watching his cousin Bozo) and later Gozzo. Great inflection of sound. And, sound often is the core of comic reaction - some sounds are funny. Pozzo sounds funny, so does Bozzo, so do many other words in the play.
Admittedly, this is one book you need to read about after having been read. And, to do it justice, I will review this analysis by myself years down the road after I read it again. This could be fun. I can not fathom what it will mean to me then. Who knows.
Dumbest "classic" in 20th century literature.......2007-06-09
I first read this work as part of my Humanities class in high school. I reread again after college to see if several years of "higher education" would make my mind more receptive so great works of literature. Both times, I thoroughly hated this play and consider one of the dumbest pieces of literature commonly taught in schools. The plot is overly simple; two hobos (probably European) await someone (probably male) named Godot. Several others pass them by during their wait. Godot never comes, and the play ends right where it began. No introduction and no conclusion. However, there are supposed to be many meanings that can be had in this story. A common one is that Godot is God, and the hobos represent humans. This reviewer's opinion is that the plot is so simple, that one could draw whatever conclusions or meanings they wanted out of it. All in all, I did not gain anything from this work. Fortunately, it is short enough to get through quickly.
Waiting for the Point.......2007-03-17
Reader 1: It's going to come, I know it is.
Reader 2: Yes, I just know that it will come, and when it does, then we can move on.
R1: Yes.
R2: Right.
R1: I just wish the point would come.
R2: Maybe that is the point, that when it comes it will bring meaning to our lives.
R1: Perhaps.
R2: Yes, perhaps, but if there's no point, then why are we waiting?
R1: Maybe that's the point.
R2: It could be, but I still think we should just wait for the point. It definitely will come. I know it, I just feel it.
R1: But that, too, could be the whole meaning.
R2: Of the point?
R1: No, it's the waiting.
R2: Waiting for the point.
R1: What else could it be?
R2: But if the point has no meaning...
R1: Then maybe that's the point.
R1 & R2: Yes!
R2: But then, how can we be so sure?
R1: Maybe that's the point.
R2: Lots of other people think there's a point.
R1: True, but does that mean there's really a point?
R2: What other point could there be?
R1: Maybe that's the point, that people love things without a point.
R2: Could be.
R1: Is there any other possibility.
R2: No, but I still think that we should wait.
R1: Maybe that's the point.
A classic, but best for those who dig absurdism.......2007-02-05
Fifty years after its premiere, Samuel Beckett's play WAITING FOR GODOT has achieved classic status, yet it is a play more talked about than read or performed. Many people could tell the vague plot of two hobos waiting on a roadside for a man who never comes, a metaphor for the "waiting for God" that forms the duration of human existence, but much of the play remains unknown. Reading the play shows a different side of the play than popular imagination, though it will not be a rewarding activity for all.
The stage is simple. "A country road. A Tree". So is the casting. The repartee of hobos Vladimir and Estragon forms the bulk of the play's dialogue. Two other men, Pozzo and Lucky, twice stop by. Finally a Boy appears as a messenger from the mysterious Godot. Pozzo and Lucky are left out of most popular references to the play, but they form a vital part of its action. When we first meet Pozzo, he is a rich man, smoking a pipe, feasting on a whole chicken... and leading his servant Lucky around with a rope and barking orders at him. The choreographical duties imposed on Lucky are a tour de force of stage writing.
While drama is written to be performed, the text of WAITING FOR GODOT allows one to pick up on various subtleties missing from performance. One is amusing stage directions. When Vladimir says "I don't understand" and Estragon replies, "Use your intelligence, can't you?", there follows the direction "Vladimir uses his intelligence." In the theatre, many of the play's most profound comments come too quickly to be properly reflected upon and digested by the audience, but reading the play lets one proceed through Beckett's musings at one's own pace. Finally, reading the play lets one spot oddities about Beckett's own translation of the play from the original French, many slightly peculiar turns of phrase in English.
While the play's meagre plot of waiting for a God who never reveals himself is often seen as existentialist, reading the play reveals instead an absurdist perspective. Unlike those writers who felt that the absence of God forces Man to determine his purpose on his own, Beckett sees little possibility of purpose. Because of the lack of hope and the frustrations that fill the dialogue, WAITING FOR GODOT can be depressing and inexplicable to many. One's enjoyment from reading the play is dependent essentially on how comfortable one is with absurdism. Nonetheless, I'd recommend at least trying.
Book Description
Waiting for Godot has become one of the most frequently discussed and influential plays in the history of the theater. This volume presents a comprehensive critical study of Samuel Beckett's first and most renowned dramatic work. Lawrence Graver discusses the play's background and provides a detailed analysis of its originality and distinction as a landmark of modern theatrical art. He also reviews some of the differences between Beckett's original French version and his English translation.
Customer Reviews:
ignore the stars, please.......2001-11-08
I just received this book and haven't read it yet. It looks quite good.
HOWEVER! because I read the description too quickly, and because I was misled by the other reader reviews, I thought that the actual text of the play was here, in both languages, in addition to a critical apparatus. Not so!
All of the other reader reviews are about Beckett's play itself, which is not part of this book!
Why is waiting for Godot like waiting for a bus?.......2001-06-28
Because you wait and wait, and then three don't turn up at once.
Nothing to be done........1999-11-23
This meaningless piece of writing shows confusion of living and despair of life. Beckett reveals society situation after the Second World War, which received much reaction from the outside. Nothing to be done becomes the first aim of living.
Question your existence with one book.......1999-10-25
Beckett's Waiting for Godot is on of the most intense existential works since existentailism was founded. The characters may be "stagnant and colorless" (See previous review)- but this is all on purpose - Beckett is showing us how stagnant and colorless our lives are as we wait in our tiny universes for a God to come along and tell us what to believe in. Beckett challenges us to look around, take control of our lives and quit waiting around everyday for something that will never come - no matter how hard you want to believe.
Exceptional example of existentialism.......1999-05-15
This play raises questions about the purpose of human existence and totally defies any previous concepts of style--it is abstract and yet quantifies a feeling of meaningful emptiness--or tired meaningfulness. I highly recommend this play to anyone who is interested in Symbolism or the existentialist movement in literature and stage. If you liked No Exit by Sartre, you'll love this.
Book Description
From an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone in 1953, followed by bewilderment by American and British audiences, Waiting for Godot has become one of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama. Now in honor of the centenary of Samuel Beckett's birth, Grove Press is publishing a bilingual edition of the play. Originally written in French, Beckett translated the work himself, and in doing so chose to revise and eliminate various passages. With side-by-side text the reader can experience the mastery of Beckett's language and explore the nuances of his creativity.
Upon being asked who Godot is, Samuel Beckett told Alan Schneider, "If I knew, I would have said so in the play." Although we may never know who we are waiting for, in this special edition we can rediscover one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time.
Book Description
A true innovation for the stage, Waiting for Godot is one of the greatest successes of the Theater of the Absurd. Although the subject and play is bleak in appearance, a semblance of nobility emerges as the two characters maintain hope.
This volume also covers Endgame, All That Fall, Act Without Words I, and Krapp's Last Tape.
Customer Reviews:
Waiting for whom?.......2000-03-10
When the play begins great is our hope to see Godot appearing on the satge.The latter never comes.Not only Vladimir and Estragon are trapped by the process of waiting but we also we are equally trapped for nearly three hours.Nevertheless we leave the theatre wiser.Waiting contitutes an important part of our existence-at all times we are waiting for somet1hing or somebody.At different times we are waiting for something different-sometimes waiting is pleasurable but often it is painful.We can empathise with the two tramps who have nothing else to do than wait for a certain Godot who keeps postponing his arrival.Waiting becomes an important metaphor of life in the play-to wait is to exist and to exist means to wait.In post second world war Europe life is less attractive than ever-the two tramps will never go up the eiffel tower,they have been marginalised by a cruel and inhumane society.Centuries of European cultural, economic and scientific developments have produced a void in man's life.The two tramps have to live by the side of a country road or in a ditch or eat the bone thrown away by an arrogant Pozzo. What is Lucky waiting for-why doesn't he leave his master?Why don't we leave the theatre after the first act-aren't we bored enough? The play is an introspection in the remote corners of our subconsciousness-we are waiting for something-you are waiting for this essay to end to think about it.Beckett superbly got all of us into the formidable act of thinking but we do not think like the hog or pig Known as LUCKY.The play may be regarded as absurd-well it hardly matters because our own existence is absurd-unknowingly we are all waiting for something in common-it is our death.It is a harsh reality to swallow,yet this is the truth-some expect the Santa claus will come others expect Jesus will come as a messiah-well nobody comes, we have been too busy waiting that we have forgotten what we are actually waiting for.
Book Description
In this Readers' Guide, Peter Boxall traces critical responses to Waiting for Godot and Endgame from the 1950s to the present day. The guide presents the major debates that surround these works as they develop, from Martin Esslin's early appropriation of the plays as examples of the Theatre of the Absurd, to recent poststructuralist and postcolonial readings by critics such as Steven Connor, Mary Bryden and Declan Kiberd. Throughout, Boxall clarifies and contextualizes critical responses to the plays, and considers the difficult relationship between Beckett and his critics.
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Esperando a Godot / Waiting for Godot
Samuel Beckett
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Waiting for Godot
Samuel Beckett
Manufacturer: Evergreen
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"Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett (Master Guides)
Jennifer Birkett
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Samuel Beckett, Wordmaster: Waiting for Godot: Text with Critical Commentary
IRA Hasan
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Book Description
"Waiting for Godot" is one the the most important plays of the 20th century. It exemplifies a new kind of writing called 'absurd drama', largely because it is so different in theme and structure from the conventional play. This critical commentary is written with the mature Pakistani student in mind, providing access to the latest criticism and an easy-to-follow explanation of the text.
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- a musical revolutionary from many perspectives
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Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music
Judith Tick
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American Folksongs For Children
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The Music of American Folk Song
ASIN: 0195137922 |
Book Description
Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) is frequently considered the most significant American female composer in this century. Joining Aaron Copland and Henry Cowell as a key member of the 1920s musical avant-garde, she went on to study with modernist theorist and future husband Charles Seeger, writing her masterpiece, String Quartet 1931, not long after. But her legacy extends far beyond the cutting edge of modern music. Collaborating with poet Carl Sandburg on folk song arrangements in the twenties, and with the famous folk-song collectors John and Alan Lomax in the 1930s, she emerged as a central figure in the American folk music revival, issuing several important books of transcriptions and arrangements and pioneering the use of American folk songs in children's music education. Radicalized by the Depression, she spent much of the ensuing two decades working aggressively for social change with her husband and stepson, the folksinger Pete Seeger. This engrossing new biography emphasizes the choices Crawford Seeger made in her roles as composer, activist, teacher, wife and mother. The first woman to win a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in music composition, Crawford Seeger nearly gave up writing music as the demands of family, politics, and the folk song movement intervened. It was only at the very end of her life, with cancer sapping her strength, that she returned to composing. Written with unique insight and compassion, this book offers the definitive treatment of a fascinating twentieth-century figure.
Customer Reviews:
a musical revolutionary from many perspectives.......1999-06-28
Judith Tick does an indispensable service here in writing the first full-length biography of Ruth Crawford Seeger. And it is a damn shame that Seeger was takened in 1951 an early age for someone with a consummate gift for composition. Tick traverses her entire life down to the walks from one library to another to concerts in Chicago, along Michigan Avenue. Infrequently we never read about Seeger's radicalism, her days, as most artists with the Labour Movement in the United States throughout the early part of this century. Tick makes us believe Seeger's understanding of this,not only in writing politically progressive music, music which identifies with the exploited, but how these experiences in facing these dark times informed her more abstract music. Tick gives a great narrative on these pre-McCarthy Era times,placing Seeger's work in a context,in fact so much so that her creativity suffered under too much involvement.
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Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music.(Review) (book reviews): An article from: Notes
Juanita Karpf
Manufacturer: Music Library Association, Inc.
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This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on December 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1477 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music.(Review) (book reviews)
Author: Juanita Karpf
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Notes (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 1998
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 55
Issue: 2
Page: 369(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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