Book description
Edited by J. C. C. Mays Murphy, Samuel Beckett's first novel, was
published in 1938. Its work-shy eponymous hero, adrift in London,
realises that desire can never be satisfied and withdraws from life,
in search of stupor. Murphy's lovestruck fiancée Celia tries with
tragic pathos to draw him back, but her attempts are doomed to
failure. Murphy's friends and familiars are simulacra of Murphy,
fragmented and incomplete. But Beckett's achievement lies in the
brilliantly original language used to communicate this vision of
isolation and misunderstanding. The combination of particularity and
absurdity gives Murphy's world its painful definition, but the sheer
comic energy of Beckett's prose releases characters and readers alike
into exuberance.
Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin in 1906. He was educated at Portora
Royal School and Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1927.
His made his poetry debut in 1930 with Whoroscope and followed it with
essays and two novels before World War Two. He wrote one of his most
famous plays, Waiting for Godot, in 1949 but it wasn't published in
English until 1954. Waiting for Godot brought Beckett international fame
and firmly established him as a leading figure in the Theatre of the
Absurd. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961. Beckett
continued to write prolifically for radio, TV and the theatre until his
death in 1989.
