Demented particulars: The annotated Murphy

"Demented Particulars" introduces Samuel Beckett's first published novel, "Murphy," that speaks to so much of the master's later works. The volume opens with an extensive introduction outlining the composition and publishing history of the novel and follows with its critical reception and literary, philosophical, theological, and biographical influences. It also includes a sophisticated discussion of the "Cartesian catastrophe" that lies at the center of the novel's comic cosmos and an extensive bibliography of pertinent works, along with a thematic index. "Demented Particulars" pays tribute to the astounding range of Beckett's reading in the 1930s, therefore documenting with precision the extent to which Beckett's later writings, particularly his dramatic pieces, arise from the matrix of these earlier works.