Books

First edition in English, first impression, of Beckett's most famous work, originally published in France as En attendant Godot in 1952, with the full text translated into English by Beckett himself for this edition. The play premiered in French on 5 January 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone, Paris; "the extraordinary success of this first production in French was responsible for Beckett's rise to worldwide fame, as the play rapidly became an object of intense international interest and controversy" (ODNB). Productions followed in English on 3 August 1955 at the Arts Theatre, London, and in America on 7 May 1956 at the John Golden Theatre, Broadway. The play was not published in the UK until 1956, and then in a new expurgated translation, again by Beckett. Godot is generally agreed to be a masterpiece of existentialist and avant-garde theatre: the apparently simple plot "disguises some profound themes: life's brevity and its pain; the human need for something to confer meaning on a mysterious existence; in its absence, a compensatory need for friendship to protect and sustain, yet fail to satisfy; a Cartesian concern with the uneasy interplay of mind and body; and, above all, a radical uncertainty which characterizes every aspect of the two friends' lives" (ibid.). Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in silver and gilt, covers lettered in blind, red endpapers. With dust jacket. With 4 plates from photographs. Contents lightly toned, else a fine copy in very good jacket, a little toned with minor rubbing and chipping at extremities, price intact and without repair. Federman and Fletcher 373.

One of the most important works of modernist literature, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is a play in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait for the arrival of someone named Godot who never arrives, and while waiting they engage in a variety of discussions and encounter several other characters.