Murphy

Name: Murphy
SKU: 29313
Author: Samuel Beckett

Paris, Bordas, 1947.

1 vol. (205 x 140 mm). Half midnight-blue morocco with small square corners, smooth spine decorated with a geometric design of gilt fillets set with four sky-blue rhinestones inlaid into the binding, top edge gilt, original wrappers and spine preserved, slipcase (P.-L. Martin, 1978).

First edition (no deluxe-paper copies were issued).

Samuel Beckett’s first book published in France.

Legend has it that Beckett received no fewer than 42 rejections from Anglo-American publishers before Raymond Queneau, at Gallimard, gave him the same answer in 1938: “his esoteric English would be too expensive to translate.” To overcome this obstacle, Beckett translated the text himself and signed with Bordas in June 1946. The book was a resounding failure: critical response was nonexistent and sales disastrous (95 copies sold). Bordas terminated the contract in 1950 and declined to publish the trilogy formed by Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable, written in 1948. Thanks to Robert Carlier, Molloy reached Jérôme Lindon, who devoured the text in a single night. The following week, Beckett signed with Éditions de Minuit, which bought back the unsold stock of Murphy and issued it under a new cover.

Our copy retains the correct original Bordas wrappers.

A very fine copy.

#29313

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