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Appropriately Beckett entered the world on a Friday the 13th that was also Good Friday. Beckett grew up in a Protestant middle class family and attended the legendary Port Royal school where he excelled in a variety of sports and showed little sign of the gloom that would later characterize his work and life. At 17, Beckett discovered Dante who became a lifelong companion and a prominent figure in much of his early work. He studied French and Italian at Trinity College Dublin and then received a scholarship to study at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. Once in Paris, this college teetotaler who broke up with his first girlfriend because she wanted a physical relationship, soon discovered the seedier sides of the City of Lights. He also frequented the Parisian literary circles, where he became secretary to James Joyce, and found some success with his first literary efforts. After a short stint as a high school teacher in Ireland, Beckett wandered aimlessly in Europe, lonely and often in poor health, supported only by a small annuity he received after his father's death. During these wanderings, Beckett read intensely, visited numerous art galleries, underwent two years of intensive psychological treatment, drank a lot, wrote