"Through a rich biographical and historical reconstruction, Lois Gordon illuminates Beckett's formative years, the years before the great work, that we may see him as fully responsive to the harsh realities of his time. This is a work generously conceived to undo the myth of a dour and distant Beckett and replace it with the full dimension of the man". -- Maureen Howard

"Gordon places Beckett's life firmly in its historical context, both artistic and political. What she unearths about Beckett's involvement in the French Resistance and with the Red Cross at Saint-Lo in 1945 is particularly persuasive and illuminating -- and finally very moving". -- Harold Pinter

"An illuminating, and immensely warm study". -- New York Review of Books

"Gordon significantly extends the scholarship about her subject.... An exemplary glimpse of a literary enigma". -- Kirkus

"For any evaluation of Beckett's temperament and achievement, The World of Samuel Beckett provides invaluable information and balance... Gordon has provided a 'missing link' in the saga of one of the West's greatest writers". -- Kimball King, Modern Drama