Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-10

This document was written with the typewriter, and contains edits in typewriter, typistred, blueblack ink, red ink. In this visualisation, unclear words are placed between [brackets].

MS. Pages: 1pp. 01r - 06r 2pp. 06r(2) - 10r 3pp. 11r - 15r 4pp. 16r - 20r 5pp. 21r - 25r 6pp. 26r - 30r 7pp. 31r - 35r 8pp. 36r - 40r 9pp. 41r - EXTRACT1-01r 10pp. EXTRACT1-02r - EXTRACT1-06r 11pp. 48r - 52r 12pp. 53r - 57r 13pp. 58r - 62r 14pp. 63r - 67r 15pp. 68r - 72r 16pp. 73r - 77r 17pp. 78r - 82r 18pp. 83r - 87r 19pp. 88r - 92r 20pp. 93r - 97r 21pp. 98r - 103r 22pp. 104r - 108r 23pp. 109r - 113r 24pp. 114r - 118r 25pp. 119r - 123r 26pp. 124r - 128r 27pp. EXTRACT2-01r - 133r 28pp. 134r - 138r 29pp. 139r - 143r 30pp. 144r - 146r

[0712] he has told me what he is like, what I am like, they have all told[p. 31r] me that, it must be one of their main functions. [0713] It's isn't enough for me to that I should know what I am doing, I must also know what I am looking like. [0714] This time I am short of a leg. And yet it appears I have rejuvenated. [0715] That's part of the programme. [0716] Having brought me to death's door, senile gangrene, they whip off a leg and yip off I go again, like a young one, scouring the earth for a hole to hide in. [0717] A single leg and on top of that other distinguishing distinctive stigmata withal to go with it, human to be sure, but not exaggeratedly, unle otherwise lest I might take fright and refuse to nibble. [0718] He'll resign himself in the end, he'll own up in the end, that's the watchword. [0719] Let's try him this time with a hairless wedgehead, he might fancy that, that kind of talk. [0720] With the solitary leg in the middle, that might appeal to[m] to him. [0721] The poor bastards. [0722] They could stick an artificial anus in the hollow of my hand and still I wouldn't be there, alive with their life, not far short of a man, just barely a man, sufficiently a man to have hopes one day of being one, a true one, in their image, my avatars accomplished behind me. [0723] And yet sometimes it seems to me I am there, at in among the incriminated spots scenes, tottering under the attributes reserved peculiar to the lords of creation, dumb with howling to be put out of my misery, and all round me the spinach blue rustling with satisfaction. [0724] Yes, more than once I all but took myself for the other, all but suffered after his fashion, the space of an instant. [0725] Then they uncorked the champagne. [0726] One of us at last! [0727] Green with anguish! [0728] A real little terrestrial! [0729] Choking in the chlorophyll! [0730] Hugging the slaughter-house walls! [0731] They can't have got over it yet. What a come down for them. [xxx] for nothing. [0732] Paltyry priests of the irrespressible ephemeral. ephemeral , how they must hate me. [0733] Come, my lambkin, join in our gambleols, it'ds soon over, you'll see, just time to frolic with a lambkinette, that's jam. [0734] Love, there's a carrot never fails, I always had to thread sol some old bodkin. [0735] And that's the kind of jakes in which I sometimes dreamedt I dwelledt, and even let down my trousers. [0736] Mahood himself nearly codded me more than once. [0737] I've been he an instant, hobbling on his crutches through a nature which, it is only fair to say, was on the nbarren side and, what is more, it is only just[p. 32r] to add, tolerably deserted at the outset in the beginning. [0738] After every thrust of my crutches I stopped, to devour a narcotic and mesaure the distance cobvered, the distance yet to cover. [0739] My head is there too, broad at the base, its slopes denuded, culminating in a ridge (crown of the edifice) or crowning glory strewn with long waving hairs like those that grow ofn moles (naevi). [0740] No denying it, I'm confoundedly well informed. [0741] You must allow it was tempting. [0742] I say an instant, perhaps it was years. [0743] Then I withdrew my adhesion, it was getting too much of a good thing. [0744] I had already advanced a good ten paces, if one may call them pavces, not in a straight line needless to say I needn't say, but in a sharp curve which, if I continued to follow it, seemed likely to bring me back restore me to my point of departure, or hard by it to one adjacent. [0745] I must have got entangled []caught up embroiled in a kind of inverted spiral, I mean one the coils of which, instead of widening more and more, grow grew narrower and narrower and finally, given hthe kind of space in which I was supposed to evolve, would come to an end for lack of room. [0746] Faced then with the material impossibility of going any further I would should doubtless have had to stop, unless of course I elected to set off again at once in the opposite direction, to unscrew myself as it were, after having screwed myself to a standstill, [0747] which would have been an experience rich in interest and fertile in surprises if it is true, as I am to believe what I have been told, nolens volens once had rammed down my ear, namely that there is no road so dull, on the way out, but it that has not quite a different aspect, quite a different dulness, on the way back, and vice versa. [0748] No good wriggling, I'm a mine of uselful useless knowledge. [0749] But a difficulty arises here. [0750] For if by dint of winding myself up, if I may venture that ellipse, it doesn't often happen to me now, if by dint of winding myself up, I don't seem to have gained much time, if by dint of winding myself up I must inevitably find myself stuck in the end, incapable of going any further without diminishing in volume or literally entering into within myself, once launched in the opposite direction ought I not normally to be unwound wound unfold ad infinitum, with no possibility of my ever being arrested (checked)?, stopping,[p. 33r] the space in which I was marooned being globular, or is it the earth, no matter, I know what I mean. [0751] But come to think of it where is the difficulty? [0752] There was one a moment ago, I could swear to it. [0753] Not to mention that I could quite easily, at any moment, lietarlly any, run up against foul of a wall, a tree or other similar obstacle barrier obstacle, which of course it would be strictly forbidden to go round, and this would have put an end thereby have an end put to my gyrations as effectively as by the kind of cramp which hasd just seized upon laid hold of me. [0754] But obstacles, it appears, one can remove obstacles barriers can be removed, in the fulness of toime, but not the likes of by me, me they would stop dead, if I lived among them. [0755] But even apart from obstacles this without obstacles it seems to me that once beyond the equator you would start turning inwards again, out of sheer necessity, I have that feeling somehow . [0756] [/ ]At the particular moment I am referring to, I mean when I took myself for Malonehood, I must have been coming to the end of a world tour, perhaps not more than one or two centuries to go. [0757] My state of decay lends colour to this hypothesis, perhaps I had left my leg behind in the Pacific Ocean, yes, no perhaps about it, I undoubtedly had, somewhere off the coast of Java and its jungles red with rafflesia stinking of carrion, no, that's the Indian Ocean, what a gazteer gazeteer I am, no matter, somewhere in that neighbourhood round there. [0758] In a word I was returning to the fold, admirttedly reduced, and doubtless fated to be evehn more so become so even more, before I could be being [Stet] restored to my wife and parents, you know, my loved ones, and clasping in my arms, both of whixch I had succeeded in preserving, my children born during in my absence. [0759] I found myself in a kind of vast yard or campus, surrounded by high walls, its surface an amalgam of dirt and ashes, and this seemed sweet to me after the vast and heaving wastes which I had travelled traversed, if my information was correct. [0760] I almos almost felt in safety out of danger! [0761] At the centre of this enclosure stood a small rotunda, windowless, but well equipped with loopholes. [0762] Without being sure I had seen it before, but then you see I had been so long from home, I kept saying to myself, Yonder is the sanc nest you should have never left, there your dear absent ones are awaiting[p. 34r] your return, patiently, and you too must be patient. [0763] It was swarming with them, grandpa, grandma, little mother and the eight or nine brats. [0764] With their eyes glued to the slits and they followed observed witnessed surveyed my efforts struggles, their hearts going out to me . [0765] This yard so long deserted was now enlived, t[h]a by me enlivened, for them, by me. [0766] So we turned, in our different orbits, they I without, they within. [0767] At night, keeping watch by turns, they onbserved me with the help of a searchlight. [0768] So the seasons came and went. [0769] The children grew in stature, the periods of Ptomaine paled grew pale, the two old ones ancients glowered at each other, saying to themselves, I'll bury you yet, yYou'll bury me yet. [0770] Since my arrival they had a subject of conversation, and even of discussion, the same as of yore old, at the time of my departure my setting forth, perhaps even an interest in life, the same as of yore old. [0771] Time hung less heavy on their hands. [0772] What about throwing him a few scraps? [0773] No, no, it might upset him. [0774] They did not want to check the impetus that was sweeping me towards thelm. [0775] You wouldn't know him! [0776] True, and yet somehow one it can only be he does you can't mistake him. [0777] They who in the ordinary way never answered when spoken to, my parents, my wife, she who had chosen fastened on me, rather than on one of her suitors. [0778] A few more summers and he'll be in our lmidst. [0779] Where am I going to put him? [0780] In the basement? [0781] Perhaps after amll I am merely simply in the basement. [0782] What possesses him to be stopping all the time? [0783] Oh he was always like that, ever since he was a tiny tot mite, always stopping, wasn't he, Granny? [0784] Yes indeed, never easy, always stopping. [0785] According to Mahhod I never got there, that is to say they all died first, the whole ten or elevent of that them, carried off by sausage poisoning, in excruciating pain great pain agony. [0786] Incommoded first by their shrieks, then by the stench of decomposition, I had turned back. [0787] But let us not go too not so fast, otherwise we'll never arrive get there arrive. [0788] It's no longer I in any case. [0789] Will he ever arrive reach us, at his present rate speed of going? [0790] He looks as if he had slowed down, since last year. [0791] Oh the last rounds laps won't take him long. [0792] My missing leg didn't seem to affect them. [0793] Perhaps it was already lmissing when I left. [0794] What about throwing him a sponge? [0795] No, no, it might upset him. [0796] In the evening, after supper, while my wife kept her eye on[p. 35r] me, the old couple related my life history, to the sleepy children. [0797] Bedtime story atmosphere. [0798] That's one of Mahood's favourite tricks, to, to invoke ostensibly independent testimonies in support of my historical existence. [0799] The instalment over, all joined in a hhymn, Safe in the arms of Jesus, for example, or, Jesus loverof my soul, let me to thy bosom fly, for example. [0800] Then they wet went off to bed, with the exception of the one on watch duty. [0801] The old ones gaffer and gammer differed in their views on me, but they were agreed that I had been a fine baby, at the very beginning, the first fortnight or t hree weeks. [0802] And yet he was a fine baby, with these words theiry invariably closed concluded [Stet] their narratives. [0803] And often one of the children, taking advantage of a pause due to the disappearance abeyance of my parents plunged in their memories, would launch by way of envoy the consecrated phrase, And yet he was a fine baby. [0804] A burst of clear and innocent laughter, from the mouths of those whom sleep had not yet overcome, greeted this premature conclusion. [0805] And the narrators themselves, torn from their melancholy thoughts, could scarce forbear to smile. [0806] Then they all rose, with the exception of my mother who found standing tiring, and sang, Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, for example, or, Jesus my one, my all, hear me when I call, for example. [0807] He too was probably must have been a fine baby. [0808] Then Finally my wife announced the latest news, for them to take to bed with them. [0809] He's backing away again, or, He's atarted to scratch himself, or, You should have seen him hopping sidelong, or, Look children, quick, he's down on his hand and kn hands and knee, admittedly that must have been worth seeing. [0810] It was compulsory, then that one of thelm should then ask her if I was approaching none the less, if in spite of everything I was making headway, they couldn't bear the thought of going to bed, those who were still awake, without the assurance that I wasn't losing ground. [0811] Photo Ptoto set their minds at rest. [0812] I had moved, no further proof was required needed. [0813] I had been drawing near for so, long now that there was no cause for anxiety, provided so lon I did not remain rooted to the spot. provided I kept moving. [0814] I was launched, there was no reason why I should suddenly begin to retreat, I wasn't made[p. 36r] that way.

MS. Pages: 1pp. 01r - 06r 2pp. 06r(2) - 10r 3pp. 11r - 15r 4pp. 16r - 20r 5pp. 21r - 25r 6pp. 26r - 30r 7pp. 31r - 35r 8pp. 36r - 40r 9pp. 41r - EXTRACT1-01r 10pp. EXTRACT1-02r - EXTRACT1-06r 11pp. 48r - 52r 12pp. 53r - 57r 13pp. 58r - 62r 14pp. 63r - 67r 15pp. 68r - 72r 16pp. 73r - 77r 17pp. 78r - 82r 18pp. 83r - 87r 19pp. 88r - 92r 20pp. 93r - 97r 21pp. 98r - 103r 22pp. 104r - 108r 23pp. 109r - 113r 24pp. 114r - 118r 25pp. 119r - 123r 26pp. 124r - 128r 27pp. EXTRACT2-01r - 133r 28pp. 134r - 138r 29pp. 139r - 143r 30pp. 144r - 146r