Samuel Beckett Books in Order
30 books are credited to Samuel Beckett, published between 1934 and 2019; 8 of them appeared after Samuel Beckett's death in 1989. The first book is More Pricks Than Kicks (1934) and the newest is Dante and the Lobster (2019). Publication order is the reading order below.
Samuel Beckett also publishes as Andrew Belis.
- Books
- 30
- Published
- 1934–2019
- Confirmed
- 1 of 30 titles
- Pages on record
- 2,258 in 7 of 30 books
Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 - 22 December 1989) was an Irish playwright, novelist and poet who worked in both English and French. Bleak, impersonal and tragicomic episodes, black comedy and literary nonsense mark the Beckett writing. Waiting for Godot is the play Beckett is best known for, and Beckett is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century and as a transformer of modern theatre. The catalogue lists 30 titles from More Pricks Than Kicks (1934) onward: Murphy (1938), Molloy and Malone Dies (1951), Watt and The Unnamable (1953), Stories and Texts for Nothing (1955), Endgame (1957) and Krapp's Last Tape & Embers (1958). Later dates in the listing reflect reissues.
Source: Wikidata
How many Samuel Beckett books are there?
Samuel Beckett has 30 books, released between 1934 and 2019. 8 of them were published after Samuel Beckett's death in 1989. 4 of them belong to the Letters series.
Samuel Beckett Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 30 Samuel Beckett books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of November 2026.
- 1More Pricks Than Kicks1934 · confirmed 1/41934–1/4
- 2Murphy1938 · 288 pages · confirmed 1/419382881/4
- 31951–1/4
- 4Molloy1951 · confirmed 1/41951–1/4
- 51952–1/4
- 61953–1/4
- 7Watt1953 · confirmed 1/41953–1/4
- 8Stories and Texts for Nothing1955 · confirmed 1/41955–1/4
- 91957–1/4
- 101958391/4
- 111958–1/4
- 121961–1/4
- 13Collected Poems in English and French1961 · confirmed 1/41961–1/4
- 141961–1/4
- 15How It Is1961 · confirmed 1/41961–1/4
- 16I Can't Go On, I'll Go On1976 · confirmed 1/41976–1/4
- 17Ends & Odds1976 · confirmed 1/41976–1/4
- 18First Love and Other Novellas1980 · confirmed 1/41980–1/4
- 19Disjecta: Miscellaneous Writings and a Dramatic Fragment1983 · confirmed 1/41983–1/4
- 20Collected Shorter Plays1984 · confirmed 1/41984–1/4
- 21Arikha1986 · 223 pages · confirmed 1/419862231/4
- 22Stirrings Still1988 · 44 pages · confirmed 1/41988441/4
- 23The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot1994 · 512 pages · confirmed 1/419945121/4
- 242008–1/4
- 252011–1/4
- 262012–1/4
- 27Beckett Remembering/Remembering Beckett2014 · 336 pages · confirmed 1/420143361/4
- 2820148161/4
- 292016–1/4
- 302019–3/4
Samuel Beckett books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
Standalone Plays
4 books4 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.
Letters in order
4 booksTrilogy in order
3 booksFaber Drama in order
2 booksFaber Stories in order
1 bookStandalone books
16 books16 Samuel Beckett titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Do you have to read Samuel Beckett books in order?
You only need to read Samuel Beckett books in order within the Letters series, which holds 4 of the 30 Samuel Beckett books listed here. The numbered table above gives every book in publication order.
Where to start with Samuel Beckett
Start with More Pricks Than Kicks (1934), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Samuel Beckett book?
Dante and the Lobster (2019) is the newest Samuel Beckett book released so far.
Is there a new Samuel Beckett book coming?
No next Samuel Beckett book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Awards Samuel Beckett has won
Wikidata records 2 awards and 4 nominations for Samuel Beckett. Each row states whether the title won or was shortlisted, and the year the award was given. Award data is sourced from Wikidata.
- Nobel Prize in Literature1969Won
- Prix Formentor1961Won
- Nobel Prize in Literature1965Shortlisted
- Nobel Prize in Literature1964Shortlisted
- Nobel Prize in Literature1963Shortlisted
- Nobel Prize in Literature1957Shortlisted
Samuel Beckett at a glance
- Died
- Samuel Beckett died in 1989, according to Wikidata.
- After death
- Books credited to Samuel Beckett are still being published after Samuel Beckett's death in 1989; the newest appeared in 2019.
- Release pace
- Samuel Beckett books have appeared about one every 3 years on average.
- Length
- 2,258 pages across the 7 of 30 books with a recorded length, a median of 288 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Samuel Beckett books, 9 of 30, were published in the 1950s.
When Samuel Beckett books were published
Publication distribution by decade, showing when Samuel Beckett titles appeared. 1950s was the most productive decade with 9 titles.
30 books total across 8 decades. Decade reflects the year each title was first catalogued.
What the Samuel Beckett books are about
10 of the 30 Samuel Beckett books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: beckett, samuel, 1906-1989 is tagged on 5 of 10. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Beckett, samuel, 1906-1989 5 of 10 books
- Authors, correspondence 4 of 10 books
- Europe, intellectual life 3 of 10 books