Murphy (novel)
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{{infobox Book | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
| name = Murphy
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = [[Image:Beckett Murphy.jpg|200px]]
| image_caption = 1957 [[Grove Press]] edition
| author = Samuel Beckett
| illustrator =
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| country = [[UK]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| series =
| genre =
| publisher = [[Routledge]]
| release_date = 1938
| english_release_date =
| media_type = Print ([[Paperback]], [[Hardcover]])
| pages = 282 (Grove Press ed.)
| isbn = 0-8021-5037-3 (Grove Press ed.)
| preceded_by =
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}}
The [[novel]] '''''Murphy''''' (1938) was [[Samuel Beckett]]'s third work of [[prose]] [[fiction]]. It was written in [[English language|English]], unlike much of Beckett's later writing, which he composed in [[French language|French]]. After many rejections, it was published by Routledge on the recommendation of Beckett's painter friend Jack Yeats.
==Plot summary==
The plot of ''Murphy'' follows an eponymous "seedy solipsist" who, urged to find a job by his lover Celia Kelly, begins work as a male [[nurse]] at the Magdalen Mental Mercyseat, and finds the [[insanity]] of the patients an appealing alternative to conscious existence.
''Murphy'' is an example of [[Samuel Beckett|Beckett]]'s fascination with the artistic and [[metaphor]]ical possibilities of [[chess]]. Near the [[novel]]'s end, Murphy plays a game of chess with Mr. Endon, a patient who is "the most biddable little gaga in the entire institution". But Murphy cannot replicate his opponent's symmetrical and cyclical play, just as he is unable to will himself into a state of [[catatonic]] bliss. He resigns "with [[fool's mate]] in his soul", and dies shortly afterwards. [[Samuel Beckett|Beckett]] relates the [[game]] in full [[English chess notation|English notation]], complete with a comically arch commentary.
Moving between Ireland and England, the novel is caustically satirical at the expense of the [[Irish Free State]], which had recently banned Beckett's ''[[More Pricks Than Kicks]]'': the astrologer consulted by Murphy is famous 'throughout civilised world and Irish Free State'; 'for an Irish girl' Murphy's admirer Miss Counihan was 'quite exceptionally anthropoid'; and in the General Post Office, site of the [[Easter Rising|1916 Rising]], Neary assaults the buttocks of Oliver Sheppard's statue of mythic Irish hero [[Cúchulainn]] (the statue in fact possesses no buttocks). The novel also contains a scabrous portrait of poet [[Austin Clarke (poet)|Austin Clarke]] as the dipsomaniac Austin Ticklepenny, given to unreciprocated 'manstruprations' of Murphy under the table; against [[Oliver St. John Gogarty]]'s advice, Clarke declined to sue.
Murphy indeed cannot go insane to achieve freedom. What he turns to instead is nothingness, and his ashes are properly spread amidst the grime of a bar. Celia also discovers the beauty of nothingness, as she loses her love, Murphy, and her grandfather's health declines. Beckett seamlessly converts comedy to terror of non-existence, as he does in his later work, ''[[Waiting for Godot]]''.
Among the many thinkers to influence Murphy's mind-body debate are [[Spinoza]], [[Descartes]], and the little-known Belgian [[Occasionalist]] [[Arnold Geulincx]].
==External links==
{{Wikiquote|Samuel Beckett}}
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*[http://www.redhotpawn.com/gameanalysis/boardhistory.php?gameid=3007756 The chess game between Murphy (White) and Mr Endon (Black)] Mr Endon's illegal move 42. ... K–Q2 has been replaced with 42. ... K–K2
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[[Category:1938 novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Samuel Beckett]]
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