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Murphy
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Manufacturer: Grove Press
Author: Samuel Beckett
Publisher: Grove Press
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $10.80
You Save: $ 2.70 ( 20% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Author: Samuel Beckett
Publisher: Grove Press
Average Customer Rating:
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Murphy Description
Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780802150370
ISBN: 0802150373
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 288
Publication Date: 1994-01-20
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press
EAN: 9780802150370
ISBN: 0802150373
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 288
Publication Date: 1994-01-20
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press
Editorial Review of Murphy
'Murphy', Samuel Beckett's first published novel, was written in English and published in London in 1938; Beckett himself subsequently translated the book into French, and it was published in France in 1947. The novel recounts the hilarious but tragic life of Murphy in London as he attempts to establish a home and to amass sufficient fortune for his intended bride to join him.
Customer Reviews of Murphy
Customer Rating: 
Review Summary: Postmodern Garbage
Review: 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 collect nuts for the winter...on second thought, watching a squirrel collect nuts for the winter is like going to Disney World when you are 4 years old compared to reading this book. I had to read this for English 196 and I can't wait to sell this back to the book store even though I got it on ebay...so in essence, selling it to the bookstore....good riddance!!!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Comic-tragic masterpiece
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Odd.
Review: 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 command of the English language. I pause, to scan a dictionary for some obscure little term (syzygy, anyone?). I pause again, to scan another dictionary for the same obscure little term. ('You cram these words into mine ears, against the stomach of my sense' -Shak.) I sigh, thoroughly vexed by the absurdities of the 'plot' and my complete reduction to an analphabetic lexicon-dependent cur. And then at last I grin, mollified again by Beckett's wit.... Onward, page two awaits!
Pages two through one-hundred and fifty-eight: same as above.
Hell roast this story, I don't know what to make of it.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: the very best
Review: the very best Beckett book, hands down. the funniest thing--along with Kinsley Amis' "Lucky Jim"--ever in English.
essential. sure it lives and moves under the spell of Joyce--who cares? can you name, other than Flaubert or James, a better master. masterly. so fun to re-read.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Murphy
Review: _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 post-Modernism of _Godot_. Beckett's black humor prevails, and the intellectual quest for love and its concrete definition develops; this idea carries over from the Joycean tradition begun in _Ulysses_.
Review Summary: Postmodern Garbage
Review: 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 collect nuts for the winter...on second thought, watching a squirrel collect nuts for the winter is like going to Disney World when you are 4 years old compared to reading this book. I had to read this for English 196 and I can't wait to sell this back to the book store even though I got it on ebay...so in essence, selling it to the bookstore....good riddance!!!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Comic-tragic masterpiece
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Odd.
Review: 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 command of the English language. I pause, to scan a dictionary for some obscure little term (syzygy, anyone?). I pause again, to scan another dictionary for the same obscure little term. ('You cram these words into mine ears, against the stomach of my sense' -Shak.) I sigh, thoroughly vexed by the absurdities of the 'plot' and my complete reduction to an analphabetic lexicon-dependent cur. And then at last I grin, mollified again by Beckett's wit.... Onward, page two awaits!
Pages two through one-hundred and fifty-eight: same as above.
Hell roast this story, I don't know what to make of it.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: the very best
Review: the very best Beckett book, hands down. the funniest thing--along with Kinsley Amis' "Lucky Jim"--ever in English.
essential. sure it lives and moves under the spell of Joyce--who cares? can you name, other than Flaubert or James, a better master. masterly. so fun to re-read.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Murphy
Review: _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 post-Modernism of _Godot_. Beckett's black humor prevails, and the intellectual quest for love and its concrete definition develops; this idea carries over from the Joycean tradition begun in _Ulysses_.