French Literature Reviews - 2026

Beckett avant la lettre
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs

Brigitte Le Juez, Beckett avant la lettre

Grasset
Collection Bleue
2007
Isbn: 2-246-71531-8
Ean 13 : 9782246715313
12.90 €

Publisher's description:

A little-known period in Samuel Beckett's life was the time he spent teaching French at Trinity College Dublin in 1930. Having not yet written his first novel, he devoted a year to teaching French authors to Trinity College students.
Long thought to be permanently lost, a notebook containing lecture notes taken by one of his students has been discovered in the university archives. Brigitte Le Juez analyzes this crucial document for understanding Beckett's work and, more broadly, his concept of literature: Gide and Balzac (or Gide versus Balzac?), Racine and Corneille (or Racine versus Corneille?), the novel, theater, and modernity. Here, the foundations of the literary thought of one of the greatest authors of our time are brought to light.

Brigitte Le Juez is a professor at Dublin City University, where she teaches the works of Samuel Beckett. Beckett avant la lettre is her first book published in France.

The period preceding Samuel Beckett s major literary achievements remains a subject of considerable interest within twentieth-century literary studies. During his early years at Trinity College Dublin, before the publication of his foundational novels and plays, his intellectual engagements were deeply shaped by the French literary curriculum he imparted to students. Readers interested in the intellectual history of modern literature and archival discoveries surrounding major authors may find this study relevant.