Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett · En attendant Godot
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1952 (first performed 1953)
- Form
- Drama
- Language
- French
- Length
- Short · 110 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendWaiting for GodotGrove Press, 2011Beckett's own English translation, which is the version performed and taught in English.
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A play in two acts, written in French in 1948 and 1949 and first staged in Paris in January 1953. Two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, wait by a tree on a country road for a man called Godot, who does not come. They pass the time in talk, quarrels and routines, are visited by the master Pozzo and his roped servant Lucky, and each evening a boy arrives to say Godot will come tomorrow. The second act repeats the first with differences; the tree has leaves and Pozzo is blind.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Waiting for Godot are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.