Steven J. Rosen considers Beckett's relation to the pessimistic tradition in literature to be one of the central affirmations in his work. This book establishes the extent to which the style and content of Beckett's writing draws upon the chief tenet of the pessimistic tradition - that life is reiterated futility. Rosen traces through Beckett's philosophical allusions the highly selective derivations from the pessimistic tradition (pre-Socratics, Socratics, Cynics, Stoics, Indian and Christian sages, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Montaigne, Descartes, Proust and Sartres) and explores in detail the extreme and exhaustive treatment in his writings of the too-often-ignored thems and images that constitute the fascinating ideology of pessimism