Shorter Plays

by Samuel Beckett

First published 2021

Beckett's final collection of short plays distills his singular vision to its essence. Bleak yet darkly comic, these stripped-down works strip away all but the barest human truths. In "Come and Go," three old friends whisper secrets, their pasts haunting the present. "Breath" observes the fleeting arc of life in a single, silent moment. Beckett's language—sometimes sparse, sometimes richly poetic—probes the pain and loneliness at the heart of the human experience.

Genres: drama, plays, literary-fiction, 20th-century

Vibes: bleak, dark-humored, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking

Tropes: stripped-down, stripped-to-essence

Period: 20th-Century

512 pages · Paperback · Grove Press

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