dies and Gentlemen, it is because you are too decadent to receive itö (ôDante . . . Brunoö 116).
Beyond the obvious connections between Beckett and Joyce explicit in the essay, there are other connections that may be made between the two authors that are beyond the text. Melvin Friedman characterizes the essay as the work of a young man enamored with a formidable and imposing ômaster.ö Friedman points out that Joyce himself was not immune to such enthusiastic endorsement:
It [the essay] is original and intuitive but at the same time digressive and facile. Comparison with Joyce's early article on Ibsen immediately comes to mind. Beckett shows the same blind dedication to Joyce which Joyce showed to Ibsen (Friedman 11).
Another early work of Beckett's that shows significant Joycean influence is the collection of short stories More Pricks Than Kicks, published in 1934 when Joyce's sway over Beckett was at its height. It is Beckett's answer to Joyce's Dubliners and the parallels between the two works are extensive. Both works are set in Dublin,
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