WAITING FOR GODOT was originally written in French by Sameul Beckett?

Question: WAITING FOR GODOT was originally written in French by Sameul Beckett!?

Wasn't Beckett an Irish!?! So why the hell did he wrtire that play in French!?he French was better!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Beckett was an Irish expatriate (fought for the French Resistance during WW2 and lived in France in the '40s), who was published largely in French by folks like Sartre, and liked writing in a different language because that way he could write plainly, without a particular and identifiable style!.

It'd be like if you wrote a particular way in English and then decided to write a novel in Japanese--you might not have the same style, if indeed any at all: Your words and sentences would be a lot simpler, and the construction of your work would be more evident!.

Lots of writers wrote in other languages, though, so it isn't _that_ strange: Joseph Conrad, who wrote Heart of Darkness, was Polish, as a very obvious for-instance!. English was his third language (French was his second), and he wasn't fluent in it until he was twentysomething!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Beckett spent a great deal of his career in France - indeed he fought the Nazis and the puppet French regime as a member of the resistance during WWII!.

He wrote many of his most important works in French claiming that it was easier for him to write in that language "without style" - that is directly and without rhetorical ornament!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

He liked to write in French so when he translated it back into English, he got rid of all the cliches and idioms that we normally use in English!. So we often say 'you're driving me crazy' but you couldn't translate from French to directly get that idiom!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Yes, he was Irish and "Waiting for Godot" is not the only thing he wrote in French!.!.!.

ADDED: Kate S gave you a great answer!.Www@QuestionHome@Com