Written in Roussillon during World War Two, while Samuel Beckett was hiding from
the Gestapo, "Watt" was first published in 1953. Beckett acknowledged that this
comic novel unlike any other 'has its place in the series' - those masterpieces
running from "Murphy" to the Trilogy, "Waiting for Godot" and beyond. It shares
their sense of a world in crisis, their profound awareness of the paradoxes of
being, and their distrust of the rational universe.
"Watt" tells the tale of
Mr Knott's servant and his attempts to get to know his master. Watt's mistake is
to derive the essence of his master from the accidentals of his being, and his
painstakingly logical attempts to 'know' ultimately consign him to the asylum. I
tself a critique of error, Watt has previously appeared in editions that are lit
tered with mistakes, both major and minor.
