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Murphy (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THE sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new..." (more)
Key Phrases: Miss Counihan, Miss Carridge, Miss Dew (more...)

4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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The Complete Short Prose of Samuel Beckett, 1929-1989 by S. E. Gontarski
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A sublime recording." -- Steven Leigh Morris, L.A. Weekly, November, 2000

Product Description

A 6 CD (6 hr. 18 min.) recording of Samuel Beckett's first novel (his only prior to World War II), published in 1938, recounts the hilarous but tragic life of Murphy in London as he attempts to reconcile the life of the body with the life of the mind.

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Product Details

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Grove Press; 12th edition (January 20, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0802150373
ISBN-13: 978-0802150370
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #119,146 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#11 in Books > Literature & Fiction > British > Classics > Beckett, Samuel
#11 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Beckett, Samuel

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
THE sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Miss Counihan, Miss Carridge, Miss Dew, Brewery Road, West Brompton, Miss Dwyer, Magdalen Mental Mercyseat, Stadium Street, Willoughby Kelly, Wynn's Hotel, Lord Gall, Angus Killiecrankie, Caledonian Road, Edith Grove, Skinner's House

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 8 books:

Imagination Dead Imagine by Samuel Beckett in Front Matter
Stirrings Still (Beckett Short) (Vol 11) by Samuel Beckett in Front Matter
How It Is by Samuel Beckett in Front Matter
All Strange Away (Calderbooks) by Samuel Beckett in Front Matter
The Lost Ones (Evergreen Original E-587) by Samuel Beckett in Front Matter

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Books on Related Topics (learn more)

I Can't Go On, I'll Go On by Richard Seaver

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	79% buy the item featured on this page: Murphy 4.4 out of 5 stars (18) $9.56
	11% buy Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable 4.5 out of 5 stars (34) $10.85
	5% buy Watt 4.5 out of 5 stars (19) $10.20
	3% buy Novels II of Samuel Beckett: Volume II of The Grove Centenary Editions (Works of Samuel Beckett the Grove Centenary Editions) $16.32

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Come to Nothing, January 16, 2000

By	David Benioff (Otisville, NY) - See all my reviews

Murphy, as these other Amazon critics have suggested, is not Beckett's greatest work. Perhaps, though, it is his most lovable book, the last time he seemed to care so deeply about his characters. The final chapter even verges on sentiment-- and whoever accused Beckett of that?

This is Beckett before he became the Beckett of fame, before he began stripping away all excesses. This is Beckett before the war, when he was still writing in English, when he was still under the influence of Joyce. Others have noted the facts. But the truth is that Beckett, even in the adolescence of his genius, was a strong enough writer to forge his own consciousness.

A writer below commends the first sentence, and I concur. It's a beauty, recalling the verses of Ecclesiastes and foreshadowing the grim honesty of Beckett's future sentences.

For a reader curious about Samuel Beckett, Murphy is a good place to start.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comic-tragic masterpiece, October 10, 2005

By	Q (my office) - See all my reviews

Murphy is a novel unlike any other. Quite deliberately, Beckett's characters are not portrayed with realistic fullness, and the plot is fragmented and incomplete. Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable read if conventional expectations are suspended. Beckett's early work is often compared to Joyce, but they are actually very different. Beckett's works are essentially tragic-comic. There is one passage that perfectly encapsulates the problem of desire:

"I greatly fear," said Wylie, "that the syndrome known as life is too diffuse to admit of palliation. For every symptom that is eased, another is made worse. The horse leech's daughter is a closed system. Her quantum of wantum cannot vary."

Beckett considered this passage important enough to repeat twice in his novel. Murphy, the protagonist of this novel, realizes in effect that desire can never be satisfied, and so he simply withdraws from life, attempting to reach a state of catatonic stupor. His girlfriend tries with tragic pathos to draw him back into life, but her attempts are doomed to failure. Murphy's friends are all similar to himself, fragmented and incomplete. The novel's vision is absurdist, tragic, and existentialist--humans are "windowless monads," doomed to isolation and misunderstanding. Beckett's achievement consists primarily in the brilliantly original language used to communicate his vision. Like Shakespeare or any great poet, his work cannot be summarized but must be experienced.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beckett is laughing at us all, October 16, 1999

By	Ryan White (goober4you@aol.com) (California) - See all my reviews

What is fascinating about a work such as this is the absolute division of opinions regarding the importance of this book. Murphy is a style unto itself. It is a story without an internal plot. The character Murphy is fueled only by his desire to desire nothing, and in search of this goal seem to get nowhere. The real message of the book is based solely in the question of existence. While Beckett does borrow and steal quite a bit of idealology form other notables, his expression of the Mind/Body Split and the concepts of the Id, Ego, And Superego, leave me stunned and hollow inside. An intense read, I reccomend a single sitting of about 5 hours, and have a friend or two read it seperately, then discuss. It can change your life. P.S. Beckett would think it absurd that I feel this strongly about his book.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars All out
Look, apart from umpteen times during my salad days I haven't read this novel in many a long year but I am actually at long last currently on the verge of undertaking yet again... Read more

Published 15 days ago by Noddy

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Beckett Best But....
Murphy lives in a garret with the skylight. Somewhere, lies the radiator. Possibly a patient. Thus begins the tragic conclusion of Beckett's narrative structure similarly to his... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Exordia N.

4.0 out of 5 stars "Nothing to lose, therefore nothing to gain"
This novel's often been neglected by comparison with the prose and drama after WWII, but admirers of Flann O'Brien's wit and slapdash satire sprinkled with Joycean erudition and... Read more

Published 6 months ago by John L Murphy

2.0 out of 5 stars Postmodern Garbage
I had to read this for class. The plot is all over the place and it is really boring. There is nothing memorable about this book and it is as mundane as watching a squirrel... Read more

Published on December 13, 2005 by M. R. Randall

3.0 out of 5 stars Odd.
My account of reading 'Murphy,' expurgated, accelerated, improved and reduced, gives the following.

Page one: I grin, marvelling at Beckett's wit and his prehensile... Read more

Published on September 29, 2005 by S. Terry

5.0 out of 5 stars the very best
the very best Beckett book, hands down. the funniest thing--along with Kinsley Amis' "Lucky Jim"--ever in English.
essential. Read more

Published on February 22, 2005 by bobaloo

5.0 out of 5 stars Murphy
_Murphy_ is dark, funny, and ponderous. While most Beckett fans know _Waiting for Godot_, this novella takes more of a Modernist bent that differs from the anticipatory... Read more

Published on June 1, 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Sex, Lies, and Gasjets
What's most telling is the quote from Beckett to CD producer and San Quentin Drama Workshop Artistic Director, Rick Cluchey, "The book is full of lies. Read more

Published on March 5, 2003 by Robert Sarwin

5.0 out of 5 stars Alas, i can only give it 5
Garbage reviews, all of them. Even those on Beckett's side. Murphy is not a "transition" work. It is not immature. It is lapidiary, essential, unavoidable.

Published on October 19, 2001 by ettore22

4.0 out of 5 stars BECKETT TRIUMPHS!......SORTA
Murphy works as a novel, up to a certain point. Like most Joycean influenced works, this novel sometimes loses itself in vague obscurities. Read more

Published on June 28, 2001 by Sesho

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