Oldal 142 [142]
MY WAY WITH THE WORK OF SAMUEL BECKETT
appeared in Hungarian in 2001 with the generous support of the copyright
holder, Mr Edward Beckett. Gerry Dukes writes of Dream of Fair to Middling
Women:
If you want to enjoy this book, all you need is a knowledge of French, Italian,
Spanish and Latin, the services of an expert on Dante, a reliable encyclopaedia, a
good Oxford dictionary, the patience of Job and a good sense of humor. What an
addition to company they would be! It’s uphill all the way, but then so was Calvary,
and the view from the top redeems the pain taken.?
The novel is an encyclopaedia of Beckett’s literary concepts. He certainly
made use of it in composing his other novels. I might even call this work
emblematic of Beckett’s oeuvre, because it contains its past and its future
together. It is the peak of early Beckett prose, and we are witnesses of the
desperate struggle against the influence of Joyce and Proust, and of the shift
towards his later style.
The other manuscript was an 18-page one-act variant of Fin de partie/
Endgame, entitled Avant Fin de partie. This manuscript, however, was no
draft but a mature literary work. I translated it into Hungarian. On returning
from Reading, at the time a freelance, I was awarded a year’s MTA Soros
scholarship to continue work in Beckett’s oeuvre. For a while publishers and
editorial offices opened before me and accepted my translations and articles.
It was during this period that my intensive Beckett activity began in earnest.
I translated all his post-1970 “dramolettes” for the volume Beckett Osszes
Dramaäi (Beckett’s Collected Dramas), Three Dialogues with Georges Duthuit,
Hugh Kenner’s Flaubert, Joyce and Beckett: The Stoic Comedians; 1 wrote
an essay Beckett and Film, and also at this time succeeded in publishing
his celebrated essays on painting. I gave a lecture on him, entitled “Samuel
Beckett, in Paris 1928 to 1930,” which was a decisive period of his life, not
least because of his connection to Joyce. I translated and published Mercier
and Camier and How It Is. I made his works known on radio, translated
John Calder’s book The Philosophy of Samuel Beckett for the centenary and
published an essay on the Three Novels for his ninetieth anniversary.
The year 1996 was a notable one. That was when Professor James Knowlson’s
biography of Beckett Damned to Fame was published; this was authorized,
because Knowlson had asked Beckett to approve almost every word. It can only
be said that without knowledge of this book authentic research into Beckett
cannot be carried out. I would be prepared to translate it at any time.
° Gerry Dukes: How It Is With Bouncing Bel, Irish Times, 31 October 1992, in James Knowlson:
Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett, London, Bloomsbury, 1996, 147.
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