Last Updated on July 29, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 173

Beckett's Endgame (1957) features a more antagonistic pair of men in an even drearier situation, while Beckett's Happy Days (1961) demonstrates his focus on women and Come and Go (1966) represents how "minimalistic" Beckett would eventually become in his drama.

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Joseph Heller's Catch 22 (1961) is a famous dark comedy in novel form that deals with the absurdity of the military in World War II.

Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) is often seen as a play that consciously imitates Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Eugene lonesco's The Bald Soprano (1950), The Lesson (1951), and The Chairs (1952) all epitomize the Theatre of the Absurd and provide interesting similarities and contrasts with Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit (1944) shows how Existentialist ideas can be presented in a more traditional dramatic form.

Albert Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus (1942; English translation 1955) was an enormously influential philosophical essay that posed the essential question for the Existentialists—what do human beings do if they reject suicide as a response to a meaningless universe. Camus's The Stranger (1942; English translation 1946) is a classic Existentialist novel.