8.2 /10 1 Votes
Original title L'Innommable Preceded by Malone Dies Translator Samuel Beckett Genres Fiction, Novel, Poetry | 4.1/5 Goodreads Language French Originally published 1953 Publisher Les Éditions de Minuit Country France | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Unnamable is a 1953 novel by Samuel Beckett. It is the third and final entry in Beckett's "Trilogy" of novels, which begins with Molloy followed by Malone Dies. It was originally published in French as L'Innommable and later adapted by the author into English. Grove Press published the English edition in 1958.
The Unnamable consists entirely of a disjointed monologue from the perspective of an unnamed (presumably unnamable) and immobile protagonist. There is no concrete plot or setting – and whether the other characters ("Mahood" [formerly "Basil"] and "Worm") actually exist or whether they are facets of the narrator himself is debatable. The protagonist also claims authorship of the main characters in the two previous novels of the Trilogy and Beckett's earlier novels Murphy, Mercier and Camier, and Watt. The novel is a mix of recollections and existential musings on the part of its narrator, many of which pertain specifically to the possibility that the narrator is constructed by the language he speaks.
Luciano Berio's musical work Sinfonia uses extensive sections of The Unnamable, along with the music of Gustav Mahler and quotes from many other famous compositions for its third movement.
BBC broadcast
A reading of selected passages from The Unnamable was broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 19 January 1959, and repeated on the 10th February. Beckett selected the passages, which were read by the actor Patrick Magee, and incidental music for strings was composed by Samuel's cousin John S. Beckett. The producer was Donald McWhinnie.