Nohow On: Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho: Three Novels [Paperback]

Samuel Beckett (Author)

Book Description

Series: Beckett, Samuel | Publication Date: December 6, 1995

Now compiled in one volume, these three novels, which are among the most beautiful and disquieting of Samuel Beckett's later prose works, work together with the powerful resonance of his famous Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. In Company, a voice comes to "one on his back in the dark" and speaks to him. Ill Seen Ill Said focuses attention on an old woman in a cabin who is part of the objects, landscape, rhythms, and movements of an incomprehensible universe. And in Worstward Ho, Beckett explores a tentative, uncertain existence in a world devoid of rational meaning and purpose. Here is language pared down to its most expressive, confirming Beckett's position as one of the great writers of our time.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Beckett has few imitators these days, when story is all to most novelists, but he remains a writer of unquestionable stature. Nohow On: Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho: Three Novels and its companion volume Samuel Beckett: The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989 assemble virtually all of Beckett's prose work outside his sequence of major novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable.

Review

In Beckett's fiction, every other word serves to snap the reader back to consciousness. -- The New York Times Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 116 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st edition (December 6, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802134262
• ISBN-13: 978-0802134264
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #476,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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 1969. Beckett continued to write prolifically for radio, TV and the theatre until his death in 1989.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of the most perfect prose of the last century, May 16, 2000

By 

Adam P. Lounsbery (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nohow On: Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho: Three Novels (Paperback)

If we politely ignore the short story "Stirrings Still," which was completed in 1989, the year of Samuel Beckett's death, these three short (very short) novels comprise the final crowning achievement in his long and brilliant prose career. Best known as the author of the play "Waiting for Godot" ("En attendant Godot"), it remains to be seen whether Beckett will ever be as lauded for his prose as he already is for his contributions to absurdist theater, but he should be. Although his trilogy of novels - "Molloy," "Malone Dies," and "The Unnamable" - are probably better-known, the three works collected in this omnibus edition entitled "Nohow On" are some of the most perfect prose of the 20th century. "Company" combines memories from Beckett's own childhood in Ireland with the minuscule movements made by an old man alone on his back in the dark. It is one of Beckett's "closed space" works, in which as little movement as possible is made, both literally and figuratively, yet it is also one of his most accessible and beautiful pieces. "Ill Seen Ill Said" (originally written in French as "Mal vu mal dit") takes the idea of "closed space" one step further, and removes any connection to Beckett's own personal memories. And finally, "Worstward Ho," which Beckett wrote in English and considered "untranslatable" into French, is a distillation of language into its very essence, in which the reader must concentrate on every word, and in which two- and three-word sentences are more beautiful and devastating than just about anything most so-called great novelists ever wrote.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievable, March 10, 2003

By 

Ross James Browne (Atlanta, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nohow On: Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho: Three Novels (Paperback)

These three novels represent Samuel Beckett's greatest accomplishment. What are they about you might ask? Let's just say that they're about everything and nothing. They are profound commentaries on the universal existential crises plaguing all of mankind, and an utterly fascinating reduction of what it means to be a human. Be forewarned: these novels are extremely modern, abstract works of art, and for many will be very difficult reading. The final installment, _Worstword Ho_ is officially the greatest work of fiction, page for page, that I have ever read. It is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. These novels are not to be taken lightly and it should be noted that Samuel Beckett put the "high" in highway. This is abstract literary thought at its far-seeing outer limit.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better., July 19, 2006

By 

J. Raimo (Princeton, New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nohow On: Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho: Three Novels (Paperback)

These are not easy works. That said, they are perhaps more honest, profound, and original that the many other, more accessible works you could be reading otherwise. Each is certainly a more than a bit tiring, and, like so many other works by Beckett, you'll find yourself frustrated if you breeze through a single paragraph without nearly committing it to memory. So, if they are as worthwhile as I previously suggested, what might justify all the trouble? The one or two passages that will strike you - and perhaps only you - on each reading. The title of my review is one you'll know if you enjoy reading Beckett, but also take a peek at this one that I've never seen singled out or particularly commended:

The words too whosesoever. What room for worse! How almost true they sometimes almost ring! How wanting in inanity! Say the night is young alas and take heart. Or better worse say still a watch of night alas to come. A rest of last watch to come. And take heart. (99)

Like Joyce, Beckett seems to reward the reader in almost direct proportion to how much effort they might invest in any given work. If a work proves difficult, it remains so for a reason - no writer, contrary to reputation, ever seeks the label of "inaccessible" or "esoteric." Beckett, like all great writers, moves in a realm beyond paraphrase, and no readers should beat themselves up for failing to catch every nuance and every meaning at a first go or a single reading. Or multiple readings. All that remains for someone dedicated to reading the work is to trust in it and - perhaps most importantly - enjoy it. Even if that may mean only catching a single passage, one passage at a time.