Vivian Mercier (1919–1989) was an

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literary critic. He was born at

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in County Offaly and educated, first, at

Portora Royal School Portora Royal School located in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, was one of the public schools founded by the royal charter in 1608, by James I, making it one of the oldest schools in Ireland at the time of its closure. Origina ...

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, and then, at

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. He was elected a Scholar of the college in 1938, and edited the student magazine '' T.C.D. Miscellany''. After taking his doctorate at Trinity, he taught in American universities from the 1940s to the 1980s; his last post was Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is perhaps best known for his famous summation of the plot of Samuel Beckett's '' Waiting for Godot'': "... has achieved a theoretical impossibility—a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice." (''

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'', 18 February 1956, p. 6.). Despite what may sound like a somewhat disparaging criticism, Mercier was one of the foremost Beckett scholars of his day, and wrote extensively about ''Godot''. He also wrote a critically acclaimed study of Beckett's work as a whole, ''Beckett/Beckett''. Mercier died in 1989, the same year as Beckett. His last marriage (1974-1989) was to the Irish novelist and children's writer

Eilís Dillon Eilís Dillon FRSL (7 March 1920 – 19 July 1994) was an Irish author of 50 books. Her work has been translated into 14 languages.

, who edited his posthumous book, ''Modern Irish Literature: Sources and Founders'' (Oxford, 1994). He is buried beside his wife in his hometown of

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Brief biography
1919 births 1989 deaths Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Irish literary critics People educated at Portora Royal School People from County Offaly Scholars of Trinity College Dublin University of California, Santa Barbara faculty {{Ireland-writer-stub