Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project Beckett Digital Library

Beckett Digital Library (815 items) > sorted by the extant + virtual student library > "D" (24 items)

This student library subsection of the BDL lists both the extant and the virtual titles which Beckett is known or thought to have read during the years 1923-1931, first as a student at Trinity College Dublin, then as a lecturer at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and TCD. The extant student library consists of the books dating from this timeframe that have been preserved in various collections, most importantly in Beckett's apartment in Paris. The virtual student library, by contrast, contains the books which, according to specific sources, Beckett read or may have read as a student and lecturer but which have not been preserved.

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 Dandieu, Arnaud: Marcel Proust: Sa révélation psychologique
[1930]

Read: Summer 1930.
 James Knowlson lists this book among the studies that provided Beckett with material for Proust (1996, 726).
Source: James Knowlson, Damned to Fame (1996), p. 726.
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 Dante Alighieri: Convivio
[1490]

Read: by October 1927, Spring 1929.
 The title page of his student copy of Vita nuova signed "S. B. Beckett" has been preserved between the pages of an extant 1965 Concordance to the Comedy. The edition also comprises Il convivio and Il canzoniere, which implies that Beckett read or at least leafed through these other works despite their not being on the Moderatorship list. In the Trinity College Archive, three pages in Beckett's hand are preserved which contain notes from the Convivio, as well as from Inferno and Purgatory (MS 10963a). Beckett tore these pages from a notebook and inserted them in another notebook he kept for the summary of the Divine Comedy (MS 10963). It is highly possible that the excerpt from Convivio was taken from the edition that Beckett once owned as a student. Unfortunately, the title page contains no bibliographical information to help us determine the exact edition. One small peculiarity of the title page could, nevertheless, point to an edition from 1883 published in Milan by Edoardo Sonzogno. Dante's surname in this edition is curiously spelt "Allighieri".
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 Dante Alighieri: De monarchia
[1559]

Read: Spring 1929.
 De monarchia has been identified by John Pilling to figure extensively in the final paragraphs of the "Dante . . Bruno . Vico . . . Joyce" essay (2009, 8).
Source: John Pilling, "Beckett and Italian Literture (after Dante)", in The Tragic Comedy of Samuel Beckett (2009).
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 Dante Alighieri: De vulgari eloquentia
[1529]

Read: Spring 1929.
 De vulgari eloquentia has been identified by John Pilling to figure extensively in the final paragraphs of the "Dante . . Bruno . Vico . . . Joyce" essay (2009, 8).
Source: John Pilling, "Beckett and Italian Literture (after Dante)", in The Tragic Comedy of Samuel Beckett (2009).
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 Dante Alighieri: La divina Commedia
Florence: Adriano Salani, 1921
Enrico Bianchi (ed.)

Read: by January 1926 (Inferno), by May 1926 (Purgatory), by October 1926 (Paradise), Spring 1929, Spring 1931.
 Daniela Caselli identifies the edition used by Beckett at TCD as the famous "beslubbered" Salani edition with comments by Enrico Bianchi published in 1921 (or its 1922 re-print) that features in Dream of Fair to middling Women (2000, 1). The decisive proof in favour of the Salani edition is the diagram of Purgatory which Beckett draws in his notebook on page 87. This diagram is identical to the one in Beckett's personal copy of Salani, where it is also accompanied by a distribution of purgatorial sins. This structure can lead one to infer that the plan of Inferno at the beginning of the TCD notebook and the distribution of sins on page 31 also originate from the Salani edition. Beckett cherished his personal copy until his death in the retirement home in Paris. Since then it has been in the hands of a private collector, which makes it impossible for the moment to investigate Beckett's valuable reading traces.
Source: Daniela Caselli, "'The Florentia Edition in the Ignoble Salani Collection': A Textual Comparison", in Journal of Beckett Studies 9 (2000).
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 Dante Alighieri: La divina Commedia
Milan: Hoepli, 1922
G. A. Scartazzini (commentary)
G. Vandelli (revised)

Read: Spring 1931.
 While Beckett's treasured copy of the Divine Comedy was certainly the Salani edition with comments by Enrico Bianchi, there is evidence that he consulted several other editions of the Divina Commedia as well. Daniela Caselli discusses one of Beckett's entries in the "Dream" Notebook extracted from Purgatorio IV. Entry [305] corresponds both to the Salani editions of 1921 and 1922 and to another 1922 edition commented by Giovanni Andrea Scartazzini and revised by Giuseppe Vandelli (Caselli 2000, 9). A number of entries in the notebook could be traced back to the footnotes of specific lines from Inferno which can only be found in the Scartazzini-Vandelli (9-10). It can be concluded that Beckett used this edition, either for both the "Dream" and the "Whoroscope" Notebook, or only for the latter.
Source: Daniela Caselli, "'The Florentia Edition in the Ignoble Salani Collection': A Textual Comparison", in Journal of Beckett Studies 9 (2000).
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 Dante Alighieri: La divina Commedia
Milan: Dalla Società Tipografica de' Classici Italiani, 1804
Luigi Portirelli (commentary)

Read: Spring 1931.
 Daniela Caselli identifies the 1804 edition of the Commedia annotated by Luigi Portirelli as the source for two notes in the "Dream" Notebook (2000, 6).
Source: Daniela Caselli, "'The Florentia Edition in the Ignoble Salani Collection': A Textual Comparison", in Journal of Beckett Studies 9 (2000).
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 Dante Alighieri: La vita nuova. Il convito. Il canzoniere
Milan: Edoardo Sonzogno, 1883

Read: by October 1927.
 For the Moderatorship exam in October 1927 Beckett was required to read Vita nuova. The title page of his student copy of Vita nuova signed "S. B. Beckett" has been preserved between the pages of an extant 1965 Concordance to the Comedy.
Source: TCD College Calendar
De Quincey, Thomas: Selected Essays of De Quincey
London / Felling-on-Tyne: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., n.d.
Sir George Douglas (introduction)
Inscription: 'S.B. Beckett / Trinity College / Dublin / March 1927'
Notes: - book stamp on inside cover of Fred Hanna, Bookseller in Nassau Street, Dublin; - includes essay 'On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts'

Read: by March 1927.
 Reading date established by approximation. The acquisition date is March 1927. Later on in 1932, Beckett inserted a line from the essay 'On Murder Considered One of the Fine Arts' in the "Dream" Notebook.
Source: Dirk Van Hulle and Mark Nixon, Samuel Beckett's Library, p. 35.
Debraye, Henri: En Touraine et sur les bords de la Loire
Grenoble: Éditions J. Rey, 1926
Location: Currently for sale at De Búrca Rare Books [march 2016]
Inscription: '[signed] / Paris August 1926'
Notes: Loosely inserted is a photographic postcard of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland depicting Arthur Jacob. Inscribed "See ref. to Cycling trip in the Loire with Charles C. Clark and inspiration for the poem Return to the Vestry 1926 in Lawrence E. Harvey - Samuel Beckett. Poet & Critic, p.308".

Read: Summer 1926.
 Beckett used this as his guidebook for his first trip through France. It contains many literary landmarks connected to Rabelais, Ronsard, Descartes and Balzac among others (Knowlson 1996, 64). Notebook MS 10964 (containing a summary of the Divine Comedy) bears the inscription "Bought at Tours: Sept. 3rd 1926", the town where Beckett started and ended his trip (Knowlson 1996, 65)
Source: James Knowlson, Damned to Fame (1996), p. 64.
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 Delaporte, Louis: Chronicle of Archaeology

Notes: in Formes magazine

Read: March 1930.
 In March 1930 Beckett had to fill in for McGreevy as secretary for the English edition of the arts review Formes (LSB I 20). One of Beckett's responsibilities was to translate Louis Delaporte's "Chronicle of Achaeology" (LSB I 20).
Source: The Letters of Samuel Beckett, vol. I, 1929-1940, p. 20.
Descartes, René: Choix de textes
Paris: Louis-Michaud Editions, n.d.
Les grands philosophes français et étrangers
L. Debricon (ed.)
Inscription: 'Jean Beaufret'
Reading traces on: 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 34, 46, 75, 94, 95, 96, 106, 107, 114*, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 122*, 123, 125*, 126*, 127, 200insertrecto*, 200insertverso*, backflyleaf*, backcover*. (*: page contains marginalia)
Notes: - the book is inscribed by Jean Beaufret, and it appears as if the marginal notes were made by him, although notes on the back cover could be in SB's hand; - page with handwritten notes inserted page 200-201, appears to be by Beaufret

Read: February 1930.
 The lines in the margin indicate either Beckett's reading or his friend Jean Beaufret's. The copy first belonged to Beaufret who was reading it together with Beckett. It is, thus, difficult to determine the author of these non-verbal traces.
Source: John Pilling, A Samuel Beckett Chronology, p. 23.
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 Descartes, René: Œuvres
Paris: [1896]
Charles Adam & Paul Tannery (ed.)

Read: February 1930.
 Apart from the extant copy in the library and the missing secondary readings, Chris Ackerley and Stan Gontarski have identified the 12-volume Œuvres edited by Charles Adam and Paul Tannery as the most important Descartes lacuna in Beckett studies (644).
Source: Chris Ackerley and Stan Gontarski, The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett (2004).
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 Diderot, Denis: Le Rêve de d'Alembert
[1830]

Read: December 1931.
 Diderot features in the "Dream" Notebook with quotes from Le Rêve de d'Alembert (DN 84) and Le Neveu de Rameau (DN 83).
Source: Beckett's "Dream" Notebook, ed. by John Pilling.
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 Diderot, Denis: Le Neveu de Rameau
[1763]

Read: December 1931.
 Diderot features in the "Dream" Notebook with quotes from Le Rêve de d'Alembert (DN 84) and Le Neveu de Rameau (DN 83).
Source: Beckett's "Dream" Notebook, ed. by John Pilling.
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 Dorgelès, Roland: Les Croix de bois
[1919]

Read: by July 1930.
 In a letter dated July 1930, Beckett described Ramuz's La Beauté sur la terre as the "best novel [he] read modernly since the shell-shocked triangle" (LSB I 32). The editors of the letters have identified Les Croix de bois as one of the three books.
Source: The Letters of Samuel Beckett, vol. I, 1929-1940, p. 32.
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 Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Les Possédés
Paris: Plon, [1886]
Victor Derély (translation)

Read: May 1931.
 In his letters, Beckett mentioned a translation of Les Possédés which he had been reading in May 1931 (LSB I 78).
Source: The Letters of Samuel Beckett, vol. I, 1929-1940, p. 78.
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 Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Mémoires écrits dans un souterrain
[1909]

Read: by October 1931.
 Unclear reading date: Beckett mentions the title in his TCD lectures in October 1931. He was certainly acquainted with Dostoevsky's works from the period in which Proust was written. It is possible, then, that he had already read the novel by September 1930.
Source: Rachel Burrows's lecture notes (TCD MIC 60)
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 Dostoevsky, Fyodor: L'Eternel mari
[1896]

Read: by October 1931.
 Unclear reading date: Beckett mentions the title in his TCD lectures in October 1931. He was certainly acquainted with Dostoevsky's works from the period in which Proust was written. It is possible, then, that he had already read the novel by September 1930.
Source: Rachel Burrows's lecture notes (TCD MIC 60)
Dostoievski, Fjodor: La Confession de Stavroguine
Paris: Librairie Plon, 1923
13th ed.
E. Halpérine-Kaminsky (translation)
Notes: - marginalia: inside cover scribble '[surhomme?]' - probably not SB's hand; - paper inserted at page xxxvii, the 'introduction du traducteur'

Read: August 1931.
 Beckett may have read Dostoevsky's Confession de Stavroguine by that time, as Van Hulle and Nixon note (2013, 123)
Sources: Dirk Van Hulle and Mark Nixon, Samuel Beckett's Library, p. 123. The Letters of Samuel Beckett, vol. I, 1929-1940, p. 79.
Dostoievski, Fjodor: Le Crime et le châtiment
Paris: Librairie Plon, [1884]
35th ed.
Victor Derély (translation)

Read: August 1930.
 Beckett may have read Dostoevsky's Le Crime et le châtiment by that time, as Van Hulle and Nixon note (2013, 123). The copy still present in Beckett's library bears no date, nor annotations, but could be a plausible first title by the Russian author for him.
Sources: Dirk Van Hulle and Mark Nixon, Samuel Beckett's Library, p. 123. The Letters of Samuel Beckett, vol. I, 1929-1940, p. 41.
Dostoievski, Fjodor: Souvenirs de la maison des morts
Paris: Librairie Plon, 1930
39th ed.
M. Neyroud (translation)
Notes: date is speculative

Read: by October 1931.
 Given the speculative publication date, Beckett may have read this edition by the time he gave the TCD lectures.
Sources: Dirk Van Hulle and Mark Nixon, Samuel Beckett's Library, p. 123. The Letters of Samuel Beckett, vol. I, 1929-1940, p. 79.
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 Dryden, John: Absalom and Achitophel
[1681]

Read: by October 1925.
Source: TCD College Calendar
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 Duhamel, Georges: La Vie des martyrs
[1917]

Read: by July 1930.
 In a letter dated July 1930, Beckett described Ramuz's La Beauté sur la terre as the "best novel [he] read modernly since the shell-shocked triangle" (LSB I 32). The editors of the letters have identified La Vie des martyrs as one of the three books.
Source: The Letters of Samuel Beckett, vol. I, 1929-1940, p. 32.
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