Samuel Beckett, Dream of Fair to Middling Women

Leonard Madden (Independent Scholar - Europe)

Ed. by Anne Markey, Dublin City University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1932

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

Beckett’s first, unfinished novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, was begun in 1931, but mostly written over the summer of 1932, in Paris (Ackerley and Gontarski, 150). Initial attempts to have the novel published failed, as several houses rejected it. In later years, Beckett suppressed Dream until, finally, in 1986 he allowed an edition to be prepared, but insisted that publication should be posthumous. The first edition, published by Black Cat, appeared in 1992.

Dream is an overtly modernist work, probing artistic and ideological conventions, wilfully difficult and demanding, flaunting its erudition with hyper-allusiveness and polylingualism. Specifically, it lends itself to being read as a critique of t…

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2047 words

Citation: Madden, Leonard. "Dream of Fair to Middling Women". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 January 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5500, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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