ldquo;Brilliant....This book is a perfect marriagemdash;or should one say; duetmdash;of subject and author; every word as masterly as the notes of the artist it illuminates.rdquo; mdash; Christopher Buckley; Forbesldquo;This is not just criticism but poetry in itself; with the additionalmdash;and inestimablemdash;merit of being true.rdquo; mdash; Washington Post Book World Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edmund Morris (The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt; Theodore Rex; Dutch) is one of Americarsquo;s most distinguished biographers; known for his rich; compulsively readable prose style. His biography of Beethoven; one of the most admired composers in the history of music; is above all a study of genius in action; of one of the few giants of Western culture. Beethoven is another engaging entry in the HarperCollinsrsquo; ldquo;Eminent Livesrdquo; series of biographies by distinguished authors on canonical figures.
#681446 in eBooks 2009-10-13 2009-10-13File Name: B000OVLJP0
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Waiting for Adam FeldmanBy Bill CrouchExcellent discussion of Becketts life and work. Highly recommend this for the advanced reader of Dramatic Lit.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Because McDonald expects the reader to have already read most of Becketts work; this does not serve as a good introBy Christopher CulverIn this book; part of a series of Cambridge Introductions to various literary figures; Ronan McDonald aims to familiarize readers with Samuel Becketts life and work in about 150 pages. The most helpful part of the book is the first two chapters; which consist of a short biography and a discussion of the cultural and intellectual context in which Beckett worked.Unfortunately; after that; McDonald explains that he expects readers to have already read all of Becketts major works before coming to this book. As a result; this volume is no longer a convenient introduction to Beckett for readers who know little about him. The second part of the book consists only of McDonalds examination of various facets of the plays (mainly "Waiting for Godot"; "Endgame" and the radio plays) and novels ("Watt"; "Murphy"; the Trilogy) that will prove utterly opaque to anyone who hasnt already spent a great deal of time reading and thinking about Beckett. What was the Cambridge University Press editor thinking? Because McDonald chose to make this book more a companion to Beckett than an introduction to him; the book ends up competing with ndash; and losing to ndash; more ample works like The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett and Hugh Kenners classic A Readers Guide to Samuel Beckett.Furthermore; these ldquo;Cambridge Introduction to Xrdquo; volumes typically end with a survey of scholarship on the writer in question; but McDonald decides to limit his comments to English-language scholarship. That does readers a real disservice; because so much of Beckettrsquo;s reception and influence has been in France and Germany. All in all; I cannot find any reason to recommend this.