Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #434508 in Books
• Published on: 1969-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 158 pages

From the Back Cover
Murphy, when first published in 1938, was Beckett's first novel and third work of fiction. Very Irish in the post-Joycean tradition, it nevertheless was the beginning of a new form of literary expression as some discerning critics recongnized at the time, drawing heavily on the author's time spent in London as a young man, and especially on his experiences as a male nurse.

It is also a comic masterpiece, full of the grim humour that had characterized his earlier More Pricks Than Kicks, and of little perceptions that cause the reader to stop and ponder or chuckle, rabelaisian in its bawdy, tragic in its relentlessly grim view of modern life. It has for many years been one of the most popular novels of one of the most seminal figures of the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews

An underrated comic masterpiece
Has a work of literature ever had a more enigmatic (anti-)hero? From our opening glimpse of Murphy sitting naked in his old rocking-chair to his grimly comic death (he mistakes the gas-tap for the lavatory chain) we find out very little about the main protagonist. He rarely speaks, a sullen presence who often ignores the attentions of his devoted girlfriend and eventually chooses to work in a mental institution rather endure than the stability of married life. All we really learn about is his selfishness (and ennui). Yet around this unattractive hero Beckett has created a comic masterpiece. There is an almost Dickensian gallery of supporting characters, from Murphy's cockney landlady to the dreadful Ticklepenny, not to mention a motley crew of Irishmen pursuing Murphy around London. From the opening sentence ('The sun shone on the nothing new') the prose crackles with invention, and in terms of innovation this work is fully the equal of a Joyce or a Kafka. When Murphy plays chess against a hypomanic inmate of the mental institution, Beckett notates the game in full; when he introduces his heroine he forgoes description in favour of a table of her characteristics. The humour, always ironic, often descends to the black, while the work also shows a philosophical intent more typical of later works. In fact, the novel is placed at an interesting point in Beckett's output, where this philosophical concern is beginning to be apparent, but the virtuosic linguistic invention has yet to be abandoned. This means that this tale of 'a seedy solipsist' is rich and yet instantly appealing.

Beckett's first novel; darkly comic
Murphy is the first novel by Samuel Beckett, published in 1938, before he gained fame as a playwright. The eponymous central character is an enigmatic figure, whose main aim in life is to avoid participation in normal human society and, particularly, employment. When he finally does bow to his girlfriend's ceaseless prodding to get a job, it is in a mental institution, where he derives contentment observing the behaviour of the inmates. Murphy is a silent, shadowy figure, yet the book's other characters are irresistibly drawn to him.

The thing that struck me most about this novel was the similarity of the style to that of the great Irish comic writer Flann O'Brien, particularly O'Brien's first novel At Swim-two-Birds, published in 1939. I can only assume O'Brien read Murphy and was inspired to mimic it, and perfect its unusual style. Or perhaps the similarity is down to the common influence of Joyce.

Murphy is my first experience of Beckett. It is a comedy, though a very dark one. It is an engaging read, far more so than Beckett's reputation would suggest. Murphy's anti-socialness and solipsism is perhaps a little disturbing, yet also intriguing.
Overall: recommended, and if you like it, I suggest you go on to read At Swim-Two-Birds, by a contemporary and compatriot of Beckett's, stylistically similar, also featuring a protagonist pathologically averse to work, and an extremely funny read.