Samuel Beckett, Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates

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Echo’s Bones and Other Precipitates

, Beckett’s first collection of poetry, was published by Europa Press in Paris in 1935. The title alludes to Book III of Ovid’s

Metamorphoses

, in which are described the two degenerative transformations of the nymph Echo (359-510). In the first, Juno curtails Echo’s vocal agency so that she is unable either to initiate speech or to remain silent. In the second, as a result of her obsession with, and rejection by, Narcissus, her body wastes so that “only her voice and bones were left, till finally her voice alone remained; for her bones, they say, were turned to stone” (399; Innes trans. 84). Consequently, the “Other” in the title of Beckett’s collection places emphasis on Echo’s petrified bones as precipitate: by-product of some…

3717 words

Citation: Madden, Leonard. "Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 July 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34651, accessed 28 March 2024.]

34651 Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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