Written just before he began his Trilogy, Mercier and Camier was Beckett's first novel in French. Written in 1946, Beckett withheld it from publication until 1970, and completed his self-translation into English, which contains substantial alterations, only four years later. The eponymous pair continue the tradition of Beckett's earlier vagabond heroes and anticipate the "pseudo-couples" that people his later works. Like these, they are two tramps eager to move on, but ultimately unable to progress. The darkly humorous tale of their journey leads them out of the city - a thinly veiled version of Dublin - and back again.
Faber & Faber 1974
Translated into: Spanish, Dutch
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