Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable

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• ISBN13: 9780802144478
• Demand: New

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Samuel Beckett's brilliance as a dramatist--as the creator of Waiting for Godot, Krapp's Last Tape, and that despairing pas de deux Endgame--has tended to overshadow his gifts as a novelist. Yet he's unmistakably one of the great fiction writers of our century. As a young man he took dictation (literally) from James Joyce, and absorbed everything that myopic maestro had to offer when it came to Anglo-Irish prosody. Still, Beckett's instincts would ultimately steer him away from Joyce's delirious play with high and low diction, toward a more concentrated, even compulsive style. His earlier novels, like Murphy or Watt, give us a taste of what was to come. But Beckett truly hit his stride with a trilogy of early-1950s masterpieces: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable. Here he dispenses with all the customary props of contemporary fiction--including exposition, plot, and increasingly, paragraphs--and turns his attention to consciousness itself. Nobody has ever evoked the pain of existence, or the steady slide toward nonexistence, with such poetic, garrulous accuracy. And once you've attuned yourself to the epistemological vaudeville of Beckett's prose, he turns out to be the funniest writer on the planet--ever.

None of the three entries in the trilogy is exactly amenable to summary. It's fair to say, though, that Molloy is the easiest to read, with at least a bare-bones narrative and an abundance of comical set pieces. In one famous episode, the narrator spends page after page figuring out how to vary the sucking stones he carries in his pockets:

And while I gazed thus at my stones, revolving interminable martingales all equally defective, and crushing handfuls of sand, so that the sand ran through my fingers and fell back on the strand, yes, while thus I lulled my mind and part of my body, one day suddenly it dawned on the former, dimly, that I might perhaps achieve my purpose without increasing the number of my pockets, or reducing the number of my stones, but simply by sacrificing the principle of trim. The meaning of this illumination, which suddenly began to sing within me, like a verse of Isaiah, or of Jeremiah, I did not penetrate at once, and notably the word trim, which I had never met with, in this sense, long remained obscure.

This nutty ratiocination goes on for much, much longer, until the narrator loses patience and throws the stones away. And that's a fair encapsulation of Beckett's philosophy: he argues for the essential pointlessness of life--the solitary, wretched splendor of human existence--but does so in a comic rather than a tragic register, which ends up softening or even overpowering the bleakness of his initial premise. So Malone Dies opens with a typically morbid mood-lifter ("I shall soon be quite dead at last in spite of it all") and then makes endless comedic hay out of Malone's failure to keel over. And by the time we hit The Unnamable, we're forced to wonder whether the narrator actually exists: "I, say I. Unbelieving. Questions, hypotheses, call them that. Keep going, going on, call that going, call that on." Happily, Beckett worried these same questions and hypotheses to the end of his career, with increasingly minimalistic gusto. But he never topped the intensity or linguistic brilliance of this mind-bending three-part invention. --James Marcus

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Customer Reviews

Heading for desolation row.
This wonderfully desolate and austere trilogy is only going to work for you if you already have some affinity for Beckett's work. If you want to get some idea of where he might have been going with 'Waiting for Godot', this could well be the answer. In some ways, the journey (internal/external) is like 'King Lear' for our times: a bleak and unrelieved search for meaning, purpose, and some sense of closure or conclusion. As you might suspect at the begining, the prospect of success is slight. Why then take the time to plough your way through a trilogy, which depicts characters becoming increasingly enfeebled and incapable, just as the language becomes reduced and impoverished?
Beckett's skill with language, is paradoxically to do more with less: even as the language breaks down, and mirrors the characters' own deterioration, the words are made to work harder, and by some strange alchemy they do, conveying a moving and strangely beautiful desolation from the waste and decay from which they are conjured. I think it's impossible to read this without seeing the parallels in our own atomised and materialistic lives (McCarthy's 'The Road'?), and the knowledge that at some future point we all must find our individual paths down desolation row. Essential reading for all those who value self-awareness, and the search for meaning.

2010-09-07 (Scotland) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The Most Painful Read ever 5 stars !!!
I forced myself to read this book thinking it might help me grow hair on my teeth and it wasn't until the hair on my head went someplace unknowing did I begin to appreciate this book. If Krapp is correct I shall regret this review in the future so hopefully I'll be around to delete it.

2010-06-07 | Left Bank (Left Blank) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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High Modernism
Beckett's so called trilogy of brief novels is a true masterwork of stream of consciousness prose. Beckett has pushed the boundaries of the novel in this great collection, beginning with Molloy (perhaps his finest work), which recounts the narrative of a man decaying either in an asylum or in jail. The detective who is employed to find him has an increasingly similar experience to the narrator's in this bizarre meditation on the horrifically uncanny aspects of modernity. Beckett has stripped the novel of plot and intelligible characters; we are left with dark landscapes and interior thoughts which are both poetic and tragically moving. The unnameable is the least formally conventional of the three, as the borders of the narrator are blurred with the totality of Beckett's fictional universe. This work is dark and filthy like the best of modern prose. It is a Joycean tract of the unconscious mind. Beckett is also particularly admirable here for translating his own French prose into English. A truly cutting edge artist and visionary writer.

2009-08-02 (New York) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Brief thought
Beckett is not for everyone. Obviously. In the first novel of this trilogy there are at least three pages about the narrator sucking on pebbles. Ridiculous, of course. Kind of the point. If you wonder why that should matter, this isn't a book for you. Let me put it this way, if Kenneth Patchen went back in time and had a baby with Hieronymus Bosch and that baby was tutored by Arnold Schoenberg (also with a time machine) and grew up to study how to make time machines in the hope that he might one day exist, he'd eventually write the first ten pages of "Molloy". The only mystery is why he didn't already do that. It's a bit like what Camus would have written after the car crash if they'd given him a pen on his way to hell. But in a good way. After all, hell is only a concept looking for a box that fits. It's aimless, pointless, depressing, etcetera. Whoopee! One of the narrators doesn't even have arms or legs and worries about this sort of thing, kind of. Read it. Or don't. Beckett's dead, what does he care? "[death is] a day like any other day, only shorter." Oh, and the murder scene in "Malone Dies" is one of the best murder scenes ever.

2009-06-08 (Montana somewhere) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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the dark brilliance of a literay master

In these three narratives, Beckett has pretty much re-engineered the form of the novel. Characters meld, descriptions fluctuate. All the props of modern fiction are dispensed with. Strangely enough though, it is through these narratives of meaninglessness that meaning is found in the humorous ironies, in the brutal depictions of human life.

Even more fascinating than the "lyrical prose" and the passages of dark humor moving among strange characters in mundane settings, is the artistic mind that lurks behind these composed lines. If you read a biography of Beckett (see my review of DAMNED TO FAME), the episodes of his life are far more fascinating than any work he created. This is not to denigrate his fiction at all, but rather to suggest that much of it can be grasped better by understanding the biographical details of its author.

Reading Samuel Beckett is demanding work, no question. The austere complexity of the writing that ebbs and flows through the grim and comedic episodes, requires a real commitment from the reader. In THREE NOVELS, Molloy is by far the most accessible and coherent - poetic passages shine through the grim visions. Beckett's comedy is most developed in this novel. The Unnameable, however, is a fractured monologue, the mental terrain stark and anonymous. Not light bedtime reading.

With this trilogy, the brilliance of Samuel Beckett shines on, mostly in the darkest of nights. His literary legacy is still reverberating ...

Parataxis

The Cloud Reckoner

Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

2008-12-06 | PARATAXIS and THE CLOUD RECKONER (Santa Cruz Mountains, Ca) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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The Collected Shorter Plays Beckett

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Customer Reviews

satisfaction guaranteed !!
Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett: All That Fall, Act Without Words, Krapp's Last Tape, Cascando, Eh Joe, Footfall, Rockaby and others
After much searching I was very pleased to find this book on Amazon. I had particularly wanted this edition which includes 'Embers' to send to my son in Israel where he had been asked by a young director to translate into hebrew.
Thanks again to the seller for very prompt delivery and excellent condition of book.

2008-08-07 | bluesgal (u.k.) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Beckett's best short dramatic works.
This is a very fine assortment of Beckett's short dramatic works, together in one volume. Most of these are late works, and they all have that existentialist angst, not to mention the dark humor, that is the hallmark of Beckett's best late works. He worked in a variety of forms in his later works; there's a work for film, a television play, some radio works, as well as stage plays. In every instance his genius shines through. Fans of Beckett will find this volume indispensable, and anyone who has an appreciation of modern stage works will also find this a superb addition to their library.

2007-12-01 (Youngstown, OH United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Absurd and nothing else.
I have long heard the name of Samuel Beckett, along with Yeats, Bernard Shaw and Heaney as the 4 most distinguished writers of Ireland. But Beckett's plays in this book are a total disappointment!
For shoppers who are reading this review, you may disagree with my rating of this book, but you have to agree that the plays in this book can (might) only be appreciated through watching them being acted out, and not just by reading the scripts.
I don't understand the plays in this book at all, except for the very first one - All That Fall.
For those who like Eugene O'Neill and such, and not absurdity, please do not try this book.
This is definitely not worth US$15.95!
Maybe just US$1.95, for All That Fall.

2006-07-05 (Dirtiest, most inefficient and undemocratic city, Singapore) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 1

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Almost too much Beckett from such a small book!
The perfect collection of Samuel Beckett's shorter works. A resource that no home library should be without.

2006-03-19 (Dayton, Ohio) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Blinded by the darkness
It is in these short 'dramaticules' that Samuel Beckett's dark and chilling genius is at it's most intense. Beckett's plays are his most vivid depiction of the futility of human communication, and the undeniable solitude of the individual as a result.

Old age and the fruitless reminiscing that this stage of life brings, preoccupies Beckett in many of these short pieces. In 'Ohio Inpromptu' an aged character's memories are constantly stopped from wandering into nostalgia by the periodic knocking of his mirror image who sits opposite him. This struggle for or against nostalgia for the past is one that faces many of Beckett's characters. In 'Rockaby' and 'Footfalls' we see old women who have battled against life for long enough and are simply awaiting their death. They feel no longing for the past and feel no passion for a life that has failed them. In 'Krapp's Last Tape', Beckett's main character has the difficulty of simultaneously battling with his former and current self. The result is a display of disdain for the optimism and exuberance that characterises more youthful thought.

The aforementioned plays, as well as notable others such as 'The Old Tune' and 'All That Fall' fantastically exemplify Beckett's premise that we are all stuck on the pointless treadmill of life and that only death can pull us off it.

2005-10-01 (amazon.com) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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The Complete Dramatic Works

Description

Gathers all of Beckett's texts for theatre, from 1955 to 1984. This book includes both the major dramatic works and the short and more compressed texts for the stage, as well for radio.

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Customer Reviews

5 stars
This book arrived in a timely manner and in perfect condition. As stated in the description, all of Samuel Beckett's dramatic works are in this collection, and it totals over 400 pages. Highly recommend to fans of the Theater of the Absurd or dark humor.

2010-07-11 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Amazon needs to list the content of the collection
For everyone else wondering I finally found the names of pieces in this collection;

Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days, All That Fall, Acts Without Words, Krapp's Last Tape, Roughs for the Theatre, Embers, Roughs for the Radio, Words and Music, Cascando, Play, Film, The Old Tune, Come and Go, Eh Joe, Breath, Not I, That Time, Footfalls, Ghost Trio, ... but the clouds ..., A Piece of Monologue, Rockaby, Ohio Impromptu, Quad, Catastrophe, Nacht und Traume, What Where

So hopefully this helps people like me. I can't be sure this is the true list but it is what the manufacturer had listed.

2009-11-22 | Helpful Votes: 10 | Rating: 4

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'No Matter,Try Again, Fail Again, Fail Better'
I bought this book few years ago, when I was still new to the writings of Samuel Beckett. Today, however I rate Beckett very highly. He has been an inspiration to many. I admire the unique and arcane atmosphere he is able to create with his characters, who frequently appear to be too intimate to one's entity. I also admire the illusion of straightforward storytelling and it's poetic repetition. I feel that he has given to the drama a new dimension and fresh originality.

I often find myself spontaneously re-reading fragments or short paragraphs from this collection. It is a pity that those who appreciate Beckett's twisted perception of humanity are deprived of this volume.

2000-09-24 | rennee (london) | Helpful Votes: 13 | Rating: 5

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How It Is

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Customer Reviews

what it is(n't)
I've always thought Beckett's prose has been the treasure of his oeuvre. Beyond his meticulously structured plays or his mysterious narratives, his prose work stands out as solitary entities. Perhaps that's the best way to put it in describing a "novel" like this. He has created a new being, divested of character and author. At most, it's a meditation on all things known and unknown, directly looking inward, reflecting whatever gloss there is on the mirror of what we are (or think ourselves to be), and then seeing beyond that. And yet, one can barely decipher a line of thought, a passage through which all mortals go, a journey. In our days, it's rare for a simple book to do that. Beckett gives himself the liberty of living in the land of illusion, constructed only by language. In doing so, unveiling the fabric of consciousness to its- i'd hate to say it again- primordial essence (if there is one). For all those who love to ask questions, the stream of questioning is multiplied in this perilous work. Hardly will you reconsider ever having been in a state of internal crisis.

Thank you, Samuel Beckett

2009-12-23 (ca, usa) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Essential!
This is final statement about the meaning of life in the 20/21 st centuries: I can't go on; I must go on; I can't go on; I'll go on. You must deal with this, and you can't live without it.

2003-08-16 | mike26999 (Glendale, AZ United States) | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 5

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Modern Epic Poetry
_How It Is_ is another challenging, far-out epic by Samuel Beckett. Beckett pushes the far outer boundaries of what can be accomplished through literary fiction. _How It Is_ brings us to the most remote frontiers of artistic consciousness, pioneering new ground into the furthest reaches of the human mind. Join us for this epic voyage into the mind of a profoundly disturbed genius.

2003-03-10 (Atlanta, Georgia United States) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Whither the well-wrought novel?
Beckett mastered standing on both sides of the borderline between convention and experiment. How It Is, both immediate in poignancy and resistant to a straight-forward reading, is wonderful testimony to this incredible ability. What is most wonderful about How It Is, and Beckett's late prose works in general, is how the form of the works speak just as loudly as the meanings of the words, if not louder. If anyone is heralding the death of the well-wrought novel, Beckett has demonstrated a controversal but brilliant way forward. We might baulk at its strangeness, but Beckett's is a very generous strangeness, one that requires work on the reader's part but will give the reader a unique experience of what a literary work can do.

2001-03-12 (New Haven, CT, USA) | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 5

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An eerie, original novel
Once again, that poet of despair Samuel Beckett puts the reader through purgatory--or, in this case, an endless tract of mud, which our narrator muddles through for about 150 pages. Written entirely without punctuation, and sometimes a little obscure as to exactly what is going on, this book does not make for easy reading. It's worth the effort, though.

I almost didn't get through it myself. "Post-modern hocus-pocus," I thought sourly, as I read the first third. But it becomes oddly compelling, even poetic. Beckett's severely minimalistic style is fascinating; there's nothing in this book except the eerily dehumanized voice of its narrator, a lonely monologue that generates real poignancy. The effect is like hearing a voice from beyond the grave, and it haunts the mind like few conventionally written novels do.

2000-05-11 | elljay | Helpful Votes: 14 | Rating: 4

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Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)

Description

Contains some of the criticism available on the play.

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Customer Reviews

A strangely engrossing nothingness
While I'd heard of this play before, this was my first experience reading it. A play wherein nothing really happens; however, I was totally absorbed. For its lack of "happenings" there is great dialogue between Estragon and Vladimir. Layers upon layers of symbolism, and symbolism that about any reader could construe differently depending on the mindset, experience and perception of each respective reader. Worthy of its acclaim, I think.

2010-08-18 | Far Away | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Reading Waiting for Godot After Seeing the Play Again
The recent Roundabout Theater production of Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" -- with Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, John Goodman...-- was a once in a lifetime experience. If "...Godot" is not the best play ever written, then it is certainly one of the top ten. A recently viewed video production (from Netflix) showed that the play can be produced to yield a range between its comic and tragic tendencies, when compared to the Roundabout version. This is not surprising, but it created a need to read the text, which is a translation from the original French. For me, the Roundabout production was the most illuminating, but the text of the play yielded insights that can come only from seeing words arranged on a page. Read the play and see it in many productions (live and video), in any order, and allow yourself to laugh out loud as your heart breaks.

2010-06-10 (NY USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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"I can't go on... End it, please!"
I can't think of a better way to spend a few hours than to read this play! It is the PROTOTYPE -- the APOTHEOSIS -- the ACME -- the NO MORE DRAMA EVER NEED BE WRITTEN of all GREAT plays since the beginning of theatrical history! This is entertainment of the highest value, and of course a PROFOUND THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE! Check out the excerpt below if you don't believe me!

Estragon: I can't go on...

Vladimir: You must...

Estragon: Why?

Vladimir: I don't know... Because...

Estragon: Cause why?

Vladimir: Beats me... Because... Hold on, here comes Lucky! Maybe he has an answer!

Lucky: Hi ho! My cheerios are soggy! Walk the walk and talk the talk. Flames on horizon burn holes in socks...

Vladimir: See? What did I tell you? There's your answer!

Estragon: I can go on now! Thanks, Lucky!

Lucky: No problem, sport!

Estragon: Are you sure though?

I have but one thing to say: WOW! Sometimes, when I read this play or see it on the stage (which never fails to marvel me with its endlessly profound wit), I think how shallow my mind is when compared to the GREAT Samuel Beckett's. Do yourself a favor and buy this play, or at least go see a performance. If the above passage has failed to hook you in, then I would seriously question your LITERARY discernment.

2010-06-10 | Jaycharlnc (Charlotte, NC) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 1

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Probably the worst peace of literature ever written
This is the most stupid thing i have ever read! Nothing happens except for two idiots wait around for a person who is never coming (godot). Its supposed to be about existentialism or what not for those artsy people who want to find some deep inner meaning. I could care less. I would have rather read about paint drying!! Did you know the author won a Nobel Prize for this! What a load of crap! Its like those artists who literally throw paint onto a canvass, make up some stupid story about how man is evil and destroying the earth or something, and then get it put up in an art museum. The back says it is the "cornerstone of twentieth century theater". I don't think so. This just shows that people are stupid enough to like it because they are supposed to because some artsy critic said how it changed his life. Well I don't think so. I have gained absolutely nothing by reading this and gone one step closer to hating modern "art" (if you can call it that!)! So don't waste your money on this. Read something worth your while like harry potter or lord of the rings, (or if you really agree with me and want to read something that liberal politicians just loathe, you should read "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton)

2010-06-08 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 1

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Beckett's portrayal of modern life
Samuel Beckett's classic play, Waiting for Godot explores many deep philosophical topics including the purpose of life and life without the existence of God. This exploration in existentialism, a philosophical view that life is complicated and without a predetermined objective, is a great example of how an author can do more with less--that is, use simplicity to create complex themes and meanings. One of the main reasons I like this play is because of how Beckett uses a simple setting, simple dialogue, and simple stage direction to create a deeper meaning and view of life.
Some argue that the play becomes monotonous and repetitive, which it does, but I argue that Beckett does successfully create monotony in a way that does not bore the reader or theatergoer. Another reason I like the play is because Beckett uses comedy to engage the reader and keep audience interested in the little action that is happening onstage.
Finally I like the reality of the play. Like Estragon and Vladimir, everyone has something they are waiting for or something they are questioning. Whether that is the meaning of life or the questionability of an existence of a God, this play can be applied to almost anyone's life. Beckett captures a view of life that does not omit the mankind's deep spiritual search or life's unanswerable questions.
I would recommend this play to anyone who is interested a piece of theater that effectively captures mankind's need to find answers to the unanswerable questions.

2010-05-24 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Happy Days

Product Details

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• Train: New
• ISBN13: 9780802130761

Description

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Customer Reviews

Not my cup of metaphorical tea...
So we are supposed to "read in" to the deeper meaning of an elderly woman and her irrational attempts to delude herself about her terminal situation. Ok, I get that part. When the redundance of her babbling stream of consciousness became unbearable, I realized this was just an attempt to get back at his wife for badgering him to do a "happy" play, and we are all just victims of his ironic joke.

What is fascinating to me, is the rationalizing that must take place among Mr. Beckett's admirers. Admiring him for his great works, they must reach deep for some rationalization of their own as to why this is also a great work. This play gives you such a shallow plot, with no real sympathetic character, you can write your own backstory and intent. Yes, it has a few cute moments, but by-and-large if you don't like a stop sign, just pretend it's an ice cream cone - happy me. Brilliant? Ugghh!!!

2010-07-10 (Connecticut) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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Happy Days
The play is by beckett. I am without words 1, 2 and more
One endures but may not enjoy but possibly...

2010-02-15 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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play set a new record for walking out
we walked out after 7 minutes. would have been 4 but I didn't want to suggest it immediately. she rambles & rambles. plays with her purse.
big deal

2009-05-26 | mungo_sd (san diego CA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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Beckett's not for everybody!
I have been a fan of Ruth White ever since I saw her in Lullaby and Let Them Hear You Whisper from the Broadway Archives. They never recorded her performance as Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days. First, Beckett is not for everybody. Some people are going to find him difficult, hard, and even boring. Those people who have never read Beckett or studied him thoroughly are going to have a hard time understanding his brilliance. Beckett is the king of minimalism regarding theater and the absurd. Here is a middle aged woman stuck in mound doing a daily routine. We never do learn why she is in such a predicament because it's a Beckett metaphor for our lives being stuck in a mound. It's a literary device. He was brilliant.

2006-12-22 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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bitter end
The alarm clock rings and Winnie awakes. It is the beginning of a new day. The scene is a flat landscape with Winnie in the centre. She is embedded up over her waist in the mound. Winnie is happy about every single day. Willie, her husband, lies behind her and he seldom speaks. He is reading the newspaper. Winnie is preoccupied with oneself, putting thinks out of her bag and talking to Willie.
In the second act Winnie is embedded up to the neck in the mound. Her speech is an endless flow of words. She is more melancholy as in the first act. I think Beckett wanted to show the process of getting old and cope with it. They both are two different characters, but they complete in a very special way. Remembering the past and being happy with the present is one of the pleasures of life. Happy days will end, but if not today, it will be another precious day.

2006-07-26 (Essen, Germany) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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