Beckett never set out to be a dramatist, he tells us. He says he originally turned to the theater because he needed a break from the novels, which he still considers his most significant writing. Regardless of what one may think of that judgment, it does seem clear that his prose fiction comprises a body of work that would distinguish him as a master even without his plays. The point is of course moot because his prose fiction is no longer perceivable entirely apart from his drama, which has had much greater circulation and has directed attention back to the novels and stories. Georg Hensel writes:

There is a kind of frustrating irony, then, in the fact that Beckett's theatrical success has caused scores of theater practitioners to seek out his nondramatic work only to read it in terms of his dramas. Despite the author's repeated statements exhorting faithfulness to genre, almost every one of his published fictional texts has at some point been adapted for the stage.