Malone Dies

Samuel Beckett · 1906–1989 · Ireland / France

Originally Malone meurt (French)

Why it matters

A dying man tells himself stories to pass the time until the end, narrating his own extinction. The middle panel of Beckett's great trilogy: consciousness stripped to voice, waiting, and the compulsion to keep speaking.

At a glance

Circular, self-canceling monologue with almost no plot or paragraph breaks.