The Unnamable Read online

  Table of Dates

  Where unspecified, translations from French to English or vice versa are by Beckett.

  1906

  13 April Samuel Beckett [Samuel Barclay Beckett] born in ‘Cooldrinagh’, a house in Foxrock, a village south of Dublin, on Good Friday, the second child of William Beckett and May Beckett, née Roe; he is preceded by a brother, Frank Edward, born 26 July 1902.

  1911

  Enters kindergarten at Ida and Pauline Elsner’s private academy in Leopardstown.

  1915

  Attends larger Earlsfort House School in

  Dublin.

  1920

  Follows Frank to Portora Royal, a distinguished Protestant boarding school in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh (soon to become part of Northern Ireland).

  1923

  October Enrols at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) to study for an Arts degree.

  1926

  August First visit to France, a month-long cycling tour of the Loire Valley.

  1927

  April–August Travels through Florence and Venice, visiting museums, galleries and churches.

  December Receives BA in Modern Languages (French and Italian) and graduates first in the First Class.

  1928

  Jan.–June Teaches French and English at Campbell College, Belfast.

  September First trip to Germany to visit seventeen-year-old Peggy Sinclair, a cousin on his father’s side, and her family in Kassel.

  1 November Arrives in Paris as an exchange lecteur at the École Normale Supérieure. Quickly becomes friends with his predecessor, Thomas McGreevy [after 1943, MacGreevy], who introduces Beckett to James Joyce and other influential anglophone writers and publishers.

  December Spends Christmas in Kassel (as also in 1929, 1930 and 1931).

  1929

  June Publishes first critical essay (‘Dante … Bruno .Vico . . Joyce’) and first story (‘Assumption’) in transition magazine.

  1930

  July Whoroscope (Paris: Hours Press).

  October Returns to TCD to begin a two-year appointment as lecturer in French.

  November Introduced by MacGreevy to the painter and writer Jack B. Yeats in Dublin.

  1931

  March Proust (London: Chatto & Windus).

  September First Irish publication, the poem ‘Alba’ in Dublin Magazine.

  1932

  January Resigns his lectureship via telegram from Kassel and moves to Paris.

  Feb.–June First serious attempt at a novel, the posthumously published Dream of Fair to Middling Women.

  December Story ‘Dante and the Lobster’ appears in This Quarter (Paris).

  1933

  3 May Death of Peggy Sinclair from tuberculosis.

  26 June Death of William Beckett from a heart attack.

  1934

  January Moves to London and begins psychoanalysis with Wilfred Bion at the Tavistock Clinic

  February Negro Anthology, edited by Nancy Cunard and with numerous translations by Beckett from the French (London: Wishart & Co.).

  May More Pricks Than Kicks (London: Chatto & Windus).

  Aug.–Sept. Contributes several stories and reviews to literary magazines in London and Dublin.

  1935

  November Echo’s Bones and Other Precipitates, a cycle of thirteen poems (Paris: Europa Press).

  1936

  Returns to Dublin.

  29 September Leaves Ireland for a seven-month stay in Germany.

  Apr.–Aug. First serious attempt at a play, Human Wishes, about Samuel Johnson and his household.

  October Settles in Paris

  1938

  6/7 January Stabbed by a street pimp in Montparnasse. Among his visitors at Hôpital Broussais is Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil, an

  acquaintance who is to become Beckett’s companion for life.

  March Murphy (London: Routledge).

  April Begins writing poetry directly in French.

  1939

  3 September Great Britain and France declare war on Germany. Beckett abruptly ends a visit to Ireland and returns to Paris the next day.

  1940

  June Travels south with Suzanne following the Fall of France, as part of the exodus from the capital.

  September Returns to Paris.

  1941

  13 January Death of James Joyce in Zurich.

  1 September Joins the Resistance cell Gloria SMH.

  1942

  16 August Goes into hiding with Suzanne after the arrest of close friend Alfred Péron.

  6 October Arrival at Roussillon, a small village in unoccupied southern France.

  1944

  24 August Liberation of Paris.

  1945

  30 March Awarded the Croix de Guerre.

  Aug.–Dec. Volunteers as a storekeeper and interpreter with the Irish Red Cross in Saint-Lô, Normandy.

  1946

  July Publishes first fiction in French – a truncated version of the short story ‘Suite’ (later to become ‘La Fin’) in Les Temps modernes, owing to a misunderstanding by editors – as well as a critical essay on Dutch painters Geer and Bram van Velde in Cahiers d’art.

  1947

  Jan.–Feb. Writes first play, in French, Eleuthéria (published posthumously).

  April Murphy, French translation (Paris: Bordas).

  1948

  Undertakes a number of translations commissioned by UNESCO and by Georges Duthuit.

  1950

  25 August Death of May Beckett.

  1951

  March Molloy, in French (Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit).

  November Malone meurt (Paris: Minuit).

  1952

  Purchases land at Ussy-sur-Marne, subsequently Beckett’s preferred location for writing.

  September En attendant Godot (Paris: Minuit).

  1953

  5 January Premiere of Godot at the Théâtre de Babylone in Montparnasse, directed by Roger Blin.

  May L’Innommable (Paris: Minuit).

  August Watt, in English (Paris: Olympia Press).

  1954

  8 September Waiting for Godot (New York: Grove Press).

  13 September Death of Frank Beckett from lung cancer.

  1955

  March Molloy, translated into English with Patrick Bowles (New York: Grove; Paris: Olympia).

  3 August First English production of Godot opens in London at the Arts Theatre.

  November Nouvelles et Textes pour rien (Paris: Minuit).

  1956

  3 January American Godot premiere in Miami.

  February First British publication of Waiting for Godot (London: Faber).

  October Malone Dies (New York: Grove).

  1957

  January First radio broadcast, All That Fall on the BBC Third Programme.

  Fin de partie, suivi de Acte sans paroles (Paris: Minuit).

  28 March Death of Jack B. Yeats.

  August All That Fall (London: Faber).

  October Tous ceux qui tombent, translation of All That Fall with Robert Pinget (Paris: Minuit).

  1958

  April Endgame, translation of Fin de partie (London: Faber).

  From an Abandoned Work (London: Faber).

  July Krapp’s Last Tape in Grove Press’s literary magazine, Evergreen Review.

  September The Unnamable (New York: Grove).

  December Anthology of Mexican Poetry, translated by Beckett (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press; later reprinted in London by Thames & Hudson).

  1959

  March La Dernière bande, translation of Krapp’s Last Tape with Pierre Leyris, in the Parisian literary magazine Les Lettres nouvelles.

  2 July Receives honorary D.Litt. degree from Trinity College Dublin.

  November Embers in Evergreen Review.

  December Cendres, translation of Embers with Pinget, in Les Lettres nouvelles.

  Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable (New York: Grove; Paris: Olympia Press).

/>   1961

  January Comment c’est (Paris: Minuit).

  24 March Marries Suzanne at Folkestone, Kent.

  May Shares Prix International des Editeurs with Jorge Luis Borges.

  August Poems in English (London: Calder).

  September Happy Days (New York: Grove).

  1963

  February Oh les beaux jours, translation of Happy Days

  (Paris: Minuit).

  May Assists with the German production of Play (Spiel, translated by Elmar and Erika Tophoven) in Ulm.

  22 May Outline of Film sent to Grove Press. Film would be produced in 1964, starring Buster Keaton, and released at the Venice Film Festival the following year.

  1964

  March Play and Two Short Pieces for Radio (London: Faber).

  April How It Is, translation of Comment c’est (London: Calder; New York: Grove).

  June Comédie, translation of Play, in Les Lettres nouvelles.

  July–Aug. First and only trip to the United States, to assist with the production of Film in New York.

  1965

  October Imagination morte imaginez (Paris: Minuit).

  November Imagination Dead Imagine (London: The Sunday Times; Calder).

  1966

  January Comédie et Actes divers, including Dis Joe and Va et vient (Paris: Minuit).

  February Assez (Paris: Minuit).

  October Bing (Paris: Minuit).

  1967

  February D’un ouvrage abandonné (Paris: Minuit)

  Têtes-mortes (Paris: Minuit).

  16 March Death of Thomas MacGreevy.

  June Eh Joe and Other Writings, including Act Without Words II and Film (London: Faber).

  July Come and Go, English translation of Va et vient (London: Calder).

  26 September Directs first solo production, Endspiel (translation of Endgame by Elmar Tophoven) in Berlin.

  November No’s Knife: Collected Shorter Prose, 1945–1966 (London: Calder).

  December Stories and Texts for Nothing, illustrated with six ink line drawings by Avigdor Arikha (New York: Grove).

  1968

  March Poèmes (Paris: Minuit).

  December Watt, translated into French with Ludovic and Agnès Janvier (Paris: Minuit).

  1969

  23 October Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

  Sans (Paris: Minuit).

  1970

  April Mercier et Camier (Paris: Minuit).

  Premier amour (Paris: Minuit).

  July Lessness, translation of Sans (London: Calder).

  September Le Dépeupleur (Paris: Minuit).

  1972

  January The Lost Ones, translation of Le Dépeupleur (London: Calder; New York: Grove).

  The North, part of The Lost Ones, illustrated with etchings by Arikha (London: Enitharmon Press).

  1973

  January Not I (London: Faber).

  July First Love (London: Calder).

  1974

  Mercier and Camier (London: Calder).

  1975

  Spring Directs Godot in Berlin and Pas moi (translation of Not I) in Paris.

  1976

  February Pour finir encore et autres foirades (Paris: Minuit).

  20 May Directs Billie Whitelaw in Footfalls, which is performed with That Time at London’s Royal Court Theatre in honour of Beckett’s seventieth birthday.

  Autumn All Strange Away, illustrated with etchings by Edward Gorey (New York: Gotham Book Mart).

  Foirades/Fizzles, in French and English, illustrated with etchings by Jasper Johns (New York: Petersburg Press).

  December Footfalls (London: Faber).

  1977

  March Collected Poems in English and French (London: Calder; New York: Grove).

  1978

  May Pas, translation of Footfalls (Paris: Minuit).

  August Poèmes, suivi de mirlitonnades (Paris: Minuit).

  1980

  January Compagnie (Paris: Minuit).

  Company (London: Calder).

  May Directs Endgame in London with Rick Cluchey and the San Quentin Drama Workshop.

  1981

  March Mal vu mal dit (Paris: Minuit).

  April Rockaby and Other Short Pieces (New York: Grove).

  October Ill Seen Ill Said, translation of Mal vu mal dit (New York: New Yorker; Grove).

  1983

  April Worstward Ho (London: Calder).

  September Disjecta: Miscellaneous Writings and a Dramatic Fragment, containing critical essays on art and literature as well as the unfinished play Human Wishes (London: Calder).

  1984

  February Oversees San Quentin Drama Workshop production of Godot, directed by Walter Asmus, in London.

  Collected Shorter Plays (London: Faber; New York: Grove).

  May Collected Poems, 1930–1978 (London: Calder).

  July Collected Shorter Prose, 1945–1980 (London: Calder).

  1989

  April Stirrings Still, with illustrations by Louis le Brocquy (New York: Blue Moon Books).

  June Nohow On: Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho, illustrated with etchings by Robert Ryman (New York: Limited Editions Club).

  17 July Death of Suzanne Beckett.

  22 December Death of Samuel Beckett. Burial in Cimetière de Montparnasse.

  *

  1990

  As the Story Was Told: Uncollected and Late Prose (London: Calder; New York: Riverrun Press).

  1992

  Dream of Fair to Middling Women (Dublin: Black Cat Press).

  1995

  Eleuthéria (Paris: Minuit).

  1996

  Eleuthéria, translated into English by Barbara Wright (London: Faber).

  1998

  No Author Better Served: The Correspondence of Samuel Beckett and Alan Schneider, edited by Maurice Harmon (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press).

  2000

  Beckett on Film: nineteen films, by different directors, of Beckett’s works for the stage (RTÉ, Channel 4 and Irish Film Board; DVD, London: Clarence Pictures).

  2006

  Samuel Beckett: Works for Radio: The Original Broadcasts: five works spanning the period 1957–1976 (CD, London: British Library Board).

  2009

  The Letters of Samuel Beckett, 1929–1940, edited by Martha Dow Fehsenfeld and Lois More Overbeck (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

  Compiled by Cassandra Nelson

  Manuscript of opening page of L’Innommable (The Unnamable) Courtesy of the Beckett International Foundation, University of Reading. © The Estate of Samuel Beckett.

  Where now? Who now? When now? Unquestioning. I, say I. Unbelieving. Questions, hypotheses, call them that. Keep going, going on, call that going, call that on. Can it be that one day, off it goes on, that one day I simply stayed in, in where, instead of going out, in the old way, out to spend day and night as far away as possible, it wasn’t far. Perhaps that is how it began. You think you are simply resting, the better to act when the time comes, or for no reason, and you soon find yourself powerless ever to do anything again. No matter how it happened. It, say it, not knowing what. Perhaps I simply assented at last to an old thing. But I did nothing. I seem to speak, it is not I, about me, it is not about me. These few general remarks to begin with. What am I to do, what shall I do, what should I do, in my situation, how proceed? By aporia pure and simple? Or by affirmations and negations invalidated as uttered, or sooner or later? Generally speaking. There must be other shifts. Otherwise it would be quite hopeless. But it is quite hopeless. I should mention before going any further, any further on, that I say aporia without knowing what it means. Can one be ephectic otherwise than unawares? I don’t know. With the yesses and noes it is different, they will come back to me as I go along and how, like a bird, to shit on them all without exception. The fact would seem to be, if in my situation one may speak of facts, not only that I shall have to speak of things of which I cannot speak, but also, which is even more interesting, but also tha
t I, which is if possible even more interesting, that I shall have to, I forget, no matter. And at the same time I am obliged to speak. I shall never be silent. Never.

  I shall not be alone, in the beginning. I am of course alone. Alone. That is soon said. Things have to be soon said. And how can one be sure, in such darkness? I shall have company. In the beginning. A few puppets. Then I’ll scatter them, to the winds, if I can. And things, what is the correct attitude to adopt towards things? And, to begin with, are they necessary? What a question. But I have few illusions, things are to be expected. The best is not to decide anything, in this connection, in advance. If a thing turns up, for some reason or another, take it into consideration. Where there are people, it is said, there are things. Does this mean that when you admit the former you must also admit the latter? Time will tell. The thing to avoid, I don’t know why, is the spirit of system. People with things, people without things, things without people, what does it matter, I flatter myself it will not take me long to scatter them, whenever I choose, to the winds. I don’t see how. The best would be not to begin. But I have to begin. That is to say I have to go on. Perhaps in the end I shall smother in a throng. Incessant comings and goings, the crush and bustle of a bargain sale. No, no danger. Of that.

  Malone is there. Of his mortal liveliness little trace remains. He passes before me at doubtless regular intervals, unless it is I who pass before him. No, once and for all, I do not move. He passes, motionless. But there will not be much on the subject of Malone, from whom there is nothing further to be hoped. Personally I do not intend to be bored. It was while watching him pass that I wondered if we cast a shadow. Impossible to say. He passes close by me, a few feet away, slowly, always in the same direction. I am almost sure it is he. The brimless hat seems to me conclusive. With his two hands he props up his jaw. He passes without a word. Perhaps he does not see me. One of these days I’ll challenge him. I’ll say, I don’t know, I’ll say something, I’ll think of something when the time comes. There are no days here, but I use the expression. I see him from the waist up, he stops at the waist, as far as I am concerned. The trunk is erect. But I do not know whether he is on his feet or on his knees. He might also be seated. I see him in profile. Sometimes I wonder if it is not Molloy. Perhaps it is Molloy, wearing Malone’s hat. But it is more reasonable to suppose it is Malone, wearing his own hat. Oh look, there is the first thing, Malone’s hat. I see no other clothes. Perhaps Molloy is not here at all. Could he be, without my knowledge? The place is no doubt vast. Dim intermittent lights suggest a kind of distance. To tell the truth I believe they are all here, at least from Murphy on, I believe we are all here, but so far I have only seen Malone. Another hypothesis, they were here, but are here no longer. I shall examine it after my fashion. Are there other pits, deeper down? To which one accedes by mine? Stupid obsession with depth. Are there other places set aside for us and this one where I am, with Malone, merely their narthex? I thought I had done with preliminaries. No, no, we have all been here forever, we shall all be here forever, I know it.