Samuel Barclay Beckett was born at Cooldrinagh (his family's home) in Foxrock, a town in County Dublin, Ireland; although there is some confusion over the true date of his birth, Beckett always held that he was born on Good Friday, 13 April 1906. A talented athlete, Beckett's body developed as steadily as his mind: after completing secondary school, Beckett entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he excelled in French and Italian. In 1928, he moved to Paris to study and teach at the Ecole Normal Superieure this move to Paris was a key event in Beckett's life, for he lived the rest of it almost exclusively in France.

While in Paris, Beckett met and befriended James Joyce, the Irish poet, short-story writer, and novelist, who was then composing Finnegans Wake, a difficult novel that Beckett helped its author translate into French. While working with Joyce, Beckett composed "Dante ... Bruno. Vico...