The Unnamable

by Samuel Beckett

  About the Author

  Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin in 1906. He was educated at Portora Royal School and Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1927. His made his poetry debut in 1930 with Whoroscope and followed it with essays and two novels before World War Two. He wrote one of his most famous plays, Waiting for Godot, in 1949 but it wasn’t published in English until 1954. Waiting for Godot brought Beckett international fame and firmly established him as a leading figure in the Theatre of the Absurd. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961. Beckett continued to write prolifically for radio, TV and the theatre until his death in 1989.

  About the Editor

  Steven Connor is Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck College London and the author of Samuel Beckett: Repetition, Theory and Text and numerous essays and articles on Beckett.

  Titles in the Samuel Beckett series

  ENDGAME

  Preface by Rónán McDonald

  COMPANY/ILL SEEN ILL SAID/WORSTWARD HO/STRINGS STILL

  Edited by Dirk Van Hulle

  KRAPP’ LAST TAPE AND OTHER SHORTER PLAYS

  Preface by S. E. Gontarski

  MURPHY

  Edited by J. C. C. Mays

  WATT

  Edited by C. J. Ackerley

  ALL THAT FALL AND OTHER PLAYS FOR RADIO AND SCREEN

  Preface and Notes by Everett Frost

  MOLLOY

  Edited by Shane Weller

  HOW IT IS

  Edited by Édouard Magessa O’Reilly

  THE EXPELLED/THE CALMATIVE/THE END & FIRST LOVE

  Edited by Christopher Ricks

  SELECTED POEMS, 1930–1989

  Edited by David Wheatley

  WAITING FOR GODOT

  Preface by Mary Bryden

  MORE PRICKS THAN KICKS

  Edited by Cassandra Nelson

  malone dies

  Edited by Peter Boxall

  THE UNNAMABLE

  Edited by Steven Connor

  HAPPY DAYS

  Preface by James Knowlson

  TEXTS FOR NOTHING and Other Shorter Prose, 1950–1976

  Edited by Mark Nixon

  MERCIER AND CAMIER

  Edited by Seán Kennedy

  Copyright

  Originally published as L’Innommable by Les Éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1953

  First published in the United States in 1958 by Grove Press. Collected in Three Novels (Grove Press 1958; Olympia Press 1959).

  First published in Great Britain by Calder and Boyars in 1960

  This edition first published in 2010

  by Faber and Faber Ltd

  Bloomsbury House

  74–77 Great Russell Street

  London WC1B 3DA

  This ebook edition first published in 2012

  All rights reserved

  © The Estate of Samuel Beckett, 2010

  Preface © Steven Connor, 2010

  The right of Samuel Beckett to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  The right of Steven Connor to be identified as editor of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

  ISBN 978–0–571–26692–0