In this brilliant new exploration of Samuel Beckett's work, Pascale Casanova argues that Beckett's reputation currently rests on a total misreading of his oeuvre, which misses entirely the literary revolution he instigated. Reintroducing the historical into the heart of this body of work, Casanova provides an arresting portrait of Beckett as radically subversive, doing for writing what Duchamp did for art. Casanova provides the key to some of the most obscure aspects of Beckett's work.