Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamable: A Trilogy; Introduction by Gabriel Josipovici

The first novel of Samuel Beckett's mordant and exhilarating midcentury trilogy introduces us to Molloy, who has been mysteriously incarcerated, and who subsequently escapes to go discover the whereabouts of his mother. In the latter part of this curious masterwork, a certain Jacques Moran is deputized by anonymous authorities to search for the aforementioned Molloy. In the trilogy's second novel, Malone, who might or might not be Molloy himself, addresses us with his ruminations while in the act of dying. The third novel consists of the fragmented monologue-delivered, like the monologues of the previous novels, in a mournful rhetoric that possesses the utmost splendor and beauty-of what might or might not be an armless and legless creature living in an urn outside an eating house. Taken together, these three novels represent the high-water mark of the literary movement we call Modernism. Within their linguistic terrain, where stories are taken up, broken off, and taken up again, where voices rise and crumble and are resurrected, we can discern the essential lineaments of our modern condition, and encounter an awesome vision, tragic yet always compelling and always mysteriously invigorating, of consciousness trapped and struggling inside the boundaries of nature.

About the Author
Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin in 1906 and died in 1989. A playwright and novelist, he studied and taught in Paris and eventually settled there permanently. He wrote primarily in French, frequently translating his works into English himself. His novels include Watt; the trilogy Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable; How It Is; and The Lost Ones. In his theater of the absurd, Beckett combined poignant humor with an overwhelming sense of anguish and loss. Best known among his dramas are Waiting for Godot and Endgame, which have been performed throughout the world. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature.