The three pieces that comprise this volume are among the most delicate and disquieting of Samuel Beckett’s later prose. Each confined to a single consciousness in a closed space, these stories are a testament to the mind’s boundless expanse. In Company, a man—"one on his back in the dark"—hears a voice speak to him, describing significant moments from his lifetime, and yet these memories may be merely fables and figments invented for the sake of companionship. Ill Seen Ill Said tells of a solitary old woman who paces around a cabin, burdened by existence itself. And Worstword Ho explores a world devoid of rationality and purpose, containing the famous directive: "Try again. Fail Again. Fail Better."
The quintessential distillation of Beckett’s philosophy on human existence and the ultimate example of his minimalist approach to fiction, Nohow On is a vital collection, concerned with conception and perception, memory and imagination.
Collected here in one volume, Samuel Beckett's three novels, which are among the most beautiful and disquieting of his later prose works, come together with the powerful resonance of his famous "Three Novels" "Molloy," "Malone Dies," "The Unnamable."
In "Company," a voice comes to "one on his back in the dark" and speaks to him, describing significant moments in life, and yet we are told it is all a fable, memories or figments devised or imagined for the sake of company. "Ill Seen Ill Said" focuses attention on an old woman in a cabin who is part of the objects, landscape, rhythms, and movements of an incomprehensible universe. And in "Worstward Ho," Beckett explores a tentative, uncertain existence in a world devoid of rational meaning and purpose. Here is language pared down to its most expressive, confirming Beckett's position as one of the great writers of our time.
"Beckett has compressed his spare style to neutron star density. His words cluster together like crystal formations, cemented into patterns of rhythm and alliteration. . . . The most intense statement yet of its author’s vision, this work focuses to a pinpoint one of the great sensibilities in modern world literature." —Washington Post
"This is the most wonderful prose I have ever read by him—sleek, ironic, gloom-cadenced, self-dissolving—and perhaps the most wonderful prose I have ever read." —Los Angeles Times
