🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett Samuel Beckett was an Irish writer who made his home in France. He was fluent in both English and French, and he crafted his novels and plays in both languages. His unique perspective on the human condition is what makes his work so memorable. He had a way of blending the serious with the strangely funny. His writing finds a sharp, witty humor in life’s more difficult moments. This signature mix of tragedy and comedy gives his stories a surprising depth. It makes you think, but it also makes you feel. The characters he created stay with you long after you have finished reading. Beckett possessed a true gift for building narratives that are both compelling and profound. He crafted simple situations that somehow speak to much larger truths about life.
All Book Series by Samuel Beckett
The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Volume 1, 1929-1940
Series opener · book 1 of 4 · published 2008
The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Volume 4, 1966-1989
Latest in the series · book 4 of 4 · published 2016
Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable
Latest in the series · book 3 of 3 · published 1958
Disjecta: Miscellaneous Writings and a Dramatic Fragment
Book 7 of 10 · published 1983
Arikha
Book 9 of 10 · published 1986 Co-authored · Robert Hughes,Barbara Rose,Jane Livingston,Avigdor Arikha,Richard Channin
The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot
Latest in the series · book 10 of 10 · published 1994
The Suppliant Women(464)Description / Buy at AmazonThe Complete Dramatic Works
Series opener · book 1 of 60 · published 1961 Anthology · Aeschylus
Theatre for Children
Book 6 of 60 · published 1999 Anthology · David Wood - UK,Janet Grant
The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart
Book 14 of 60 · published 2011 Anthology · David Greig
Impro for Storytellers
Book 18 of 60 · published 2014 Anthology · Keith Johnstone
Shakespeare in Love
Book 19 of 60 · published 2014 Anthology · Tom Stoppard,LeeHall,Marc Norman
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour
Book 23 of 60 · published 2015 Anthology · LeeHall
Mametz: with a Welsh-language translation
Book 31 of 60 · published 2017 Anthology · Owen Sheers,Ceri Wyn Jones
My Country; A Work In Progress
Book 32 of 60 · published 2017 Anthology · Carol Ann Duffy,Rufus Norris
The Mentor
Book 33 of 60 · published 2017 Anthology · Christopher Hampton,Daniel Kehlmann
The Lie
Book 38 of 60 · published 2017 Anthology · Christopher Hampton,Florian Zeller
Christmas Eve
Book 40 of 60 · published 2017 Anthology · Christopher Hampton,Daniel Kehlmann
The Rockingham Shoot And Other Dramatic Writings
Book 45 of 60 · published 2018 Anthology · John McGahern
The Short Plays of Harold Pinter
Book 50 of 60 · published 2018 Anthology · Harold Pinter
The Height of the Storm
Book 52 of 60 · published 2018 Anthology · Christopher Hampton,Florian Zeller
A Very Very Very Dark Matter
Book 55 of 60 · published 2018 Anthology · Martin McDonagh
When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other
Book 56 of 60 · published 2019 Anthology · Martin Crimp
The Complete Dramatic Works
Latest in the series · book 60 of 60 · published 1961
A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Series opener · book 1 of 28 · published 1955 Anthology · Flannery O'Connor
Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine
Book 7 of 28 · published 1998 Anthology · Thom Jones
The Shielding of Mrs Forbes
Book 9 of 28 · published 2011 Anthology · Alan Bennett
The Cheater's Guide to Love
Book 10 of 28 · published 2012 Anthology · Junot Díaz
Come Rain or Come Shine
Book 14 of 28 · published 2019 Anthology · Kazuo Ishiguro
The Lydia Steptoe Stories
Book 19 of 28 · published 2019 Anthology · Djuna Barnes
Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom
Book 20 of 28 · published 2019 Anthology · Sylvia Plath
The Forester's Daughter
Book 23 of 28 · published 2019 Anthology · Claire Keegan
Three Types of Solitude
Book 24 of 28 · published 2019 Anthology · Brian W. Aldiss
Intruders
Latest in the series · book 28 of 28 · published 2019 Anthology · Adrian Tomine
James Joyce/Finnegans Wake: Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress
Series opener · book 1 of 10 · published 1929
The Olympia Reader: An Anthology of Erotic & Literary Classics
Book 2 of 10 · published 1965
Given: Photographs and Dispatches from El Paso Cemeteries
Latest in the series · book 10 of 10 · published 2026
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Samuel Beckett?
Samuel Beckett Samuel Beckett was an Irish writer who made his home in France. He was fluent in both English and French, and he crafted his novels and plays in both languages. His unique perspective on the human condition is what makes his work so memorable.
Which Samuel Beckett series should I start with?
The best place to start is The Trilogy series, the earliest of Samuel Beckett's multi-book series: it opens with Malone Dies (1951) and runs to 3 books across 1951–1958, ending with Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable (1958). Samuel Beckett's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.
How many books has Samuel Beckett written?
Samuel Beckett has 125 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1929 and 2026. 95 of them belong to 4 named series — the largest being the Faber Drama series with 60 books — and 30 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Samuel Beckett's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Samuel Beckett's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are The Trilogy (1951–1958, 3 books), Faber Drama (1961–2020, 60 books) and The Letters (2008–2016, 4 books).
How are Samuel Beckett's books organised into series?
This guide splits Samuel Beckett's 125 books into 4 named series and 30 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Faber Drama (60 books, 1961–2020); The Letters (4 books, 2008–2016); The Trilogy (3 books, 1951–1958); Faber Stories (28 books, 1955–2019).