Beckett's first published novel, a comic story set largely in London and Dublin in the 1930s. Murphy, an Irishman who prefers the inner life of his mind to the outside world, is urged by his lover Celia to find a job. He reluctantly looks for work while a group of eccentric acquaintances pursue him for their own reasons.
The book mixes farce, learned jokes and philosophical musings about mind and body. It shows the wit and invention of the young Beckett before his sparer later style.
Quotes
The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.