The Expelled

by Samuel Beckett

Remorseless and unnerving, but leavened with black humour and the brilliance of his writing, Beckett's work is some of the most important and distinctive of the last century. In these two stories, the pains of companionship, and of loneliness and of the human body are starkly explored.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Literature, Irish Literature, Literary Fiction

52 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Novels of Samuel Barclay Beckett, Irish writer, include Murphy in 1938 and Malone Dies in 1951; a wider audience know his absurdist plays, such as Waiting for Godot in 1952 and Krapp's Last Tape in 1959, and he won the Nobel Prize of 1969 for literature.

Samuel Barclay Beckett, an avant-garde theater director and poet, lived in France for most of his adult life. He used English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black gallows humor.

People regard most influence of Samuel Barclay Beckett of the 20th century. James Augustine Aloysius Joyce strongly influenced him, whom people consider as one modernist. People sometimes consider him as an inspiration to many later first postmodernists. He is one of the key in what Martin Esslin called the "theater of the absurd". His later career worked with increasing minimalism.

People awarded Samuel Barclay Beckett "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation".

In 1984, people elected Samuel Barclay Bennett as Saoi of Aosdána.

Reviews

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are among the Expelled, evicted from our original childhood happiness for an uneasy edginess.

We try to gainsay our paltry estate to those we love, but resistance is futile. We have seen our Shadow and he is us. And here we thought ourselves successful graduates of the lower and more knotty chambers of Dis. We thought we were free.

It is no use arguing with this trumped tramp. He IS his own nothingness.

Then, a shaft of sunlight. We have found our mirror selves in a hall of mirrors: Beckett’s Reject. Should be a happy occasion, right? It would be, if we could extricate our minds from its ragged dregs.

It seemed an endless day for us. First the expulsion. Then the calmative: that Balm of Gilead, proffered broken compassion for our Lostness, that aimless cab ride to the Zoo and brief final rest in a Manger for Emaciated Beasts, presaging Jesus’ salvation through crucifixion offered to us expelled ones.

Is it time for Salvation from Human Misery, then?

Later, later - not quite yet. For Dawn is breaking, and the Quest continues. We must go on, for we have no choice.

But we are now at one with our Unadorned Original Selves once again, our wailing selves long before our doting parents lavished upon us their bells, whistles and other gewgaws.

When we made the descent to our abject original basement with this expelled one, we thought we were free of ourselves and our worries.

Then our worries drove us to the Pit, where we saw ourselves as we once were when Expelled from our Mother’s Womb.

But we had lost ourselves before we started, these original selves…

Syllogism is forever cancelled out by another. Life is eternally circular. Being is borderless, the sum of contradictory syllogisms that don’t mesh. Our Being just IS.

So what are we going to do with these selves, now that we’ve found them and we’re free?

Do like me.

Read Beckett till the Cows come Home, to remind us of our Littleness.

The Self that is Expelled from illusion is forever perched on the Edge!

Dare we join him there?

[Ehsan'Shokraie' · Rating 5 out of 5]

اولین اثری که از بکت خواندم...شگفت انگیز بود.

[Baktash · Rating 4 out of 5]

یک پست مدرن کوتاه‌ و بسیار خوب.چندجاش حسابی خندیدم. کم کم دارم خوندن بکت رو یاد میگیرم.

[Ardavan Bayat · Rating 3 out of 5]

خوانش: 1400.09.29

نسخه‌ای که داشتم کتاب گویا بود. و مثل همیشه گوینده حتا نام نویسنده را هم نتوانست درست بخواند. ساده‌ترین واژگان را نمی‌توانست درست بخواند! مسخره است. دوست گرامی اگر می‌خواهی کتابی را گویا کنی دست‌کم واژگانی که برایت ناآشنا هستند را جست‌وجو کن و روش درست خواندنشان را یاد بگیر. بارها در این گونه کتاب‌های گویا نام اورول Orwell را Orol، همینگ‌وی Hamingway را Hamingouy و... شنیده‌ام.

شاید بگویید پول که نداده‌ای، طلبکار هم هستی؟ ولی درست است، من طلبکارم. زمانی که می‌بینم و همه‌تان می‌بینید که راجع‌به را راجب می‌نویسند یا تغییر را تعغیر یا اَمثال را امسال و... می‌نویسند چه احساسی پیدا می‌کنید؟ شاید نام نویسنده چندان مشکلی پیش‌نیآورد ولی زمانی که نویسنده نمی‌تواند یک واژه را درست بخواند، خوانندگان ناآگاه را هم در ناآگاهی نگه می‌دارد.

داستان همان پرسش میان تخصص و تقوا ست. اگر تخصص نداری و کاری را می‌پذیری، تقوا هم نداری. اگر کار فرهنگی را چشم‌بسته و ناآگاهانه انجام می‌دهی، صدای خوب کمکی نمی‌کند باید برای بهتر شدن کیفیت کارت کوشش کنی.

درباره‌ی داستان هم باید یک بار دیگر نسخه‌ی کاغذی/دیجیتال آن را بخوانم. این کتاب گویا چهل دقیقه بود، نمی‌دانم چند صفحه است.

[Rita Gonzaga · Rating 4 out of 5]

O curioso disto tudo é a escolha dos contos. Enquanto que o livro leva o nome de apenas um conto, aquele que advém é um complemento a um sentido permanente. A história de uma homem que deambula, sem lar ou ligações, pelas ruas de uma cidade desconhecida. A segunda; um homem que encontra uma mulher que acaba por amar, sem grande opção. Parece uma consequência. Ou a ordem natural das coisas. Qualquer das formas é sempre brilhante. Três vivas para o Beckett

[Peter Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well it’s Beckett so you get what expect, which in this case is two slices of deep depression centred around characters who are less than rational and somewhat lacking in empathy.

There are, by accident or design, some odd connecting story elements between these two stories. One is homelessness and another is hats bought by fathers. One wonders if both protagonists are actually the same person? I guess, as in many cases, Beckett characters are often a bit autobiographical so they may very well indeed be the same person.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I don’t know why I told this story. I could just as well have told another."

Genius. The Expelled is a story about why we tell stories. That line might as well be straight from Beckett’s own mouth. He keeps us keen (what does the unnamed protagonists hat look like and why does he walk oddly?), but he is merely stringing us along. The Expelled leaves you salivating for more and feeling ever so slightly tricked, while you momentarily question the raison d’être of every story you have ever read.

The second story in the collection, First Loves, flirts with the same idea. The protagonist is aware that this is a story: he deliberates over what is the truth and what is not, he addresses his audience directly, and he gets easily distracted from the important details: “this sentence has gone on long enough”, he says.

The writing in each of these stories is beautifully crafted, and funny too. Like The Expelled, First Love has a profound ending, but it is a confusing ride (and I found myself getting distracted with the unecessary details). Beckett uses the short story format to question why we tell stories at all. It seems to me that Beckett only wants to tell one story: that of the human condition.

I definitely want to read more of Beckett.

See the full review on my blog: http://wp.me/pYw5y-pv

[Gilgamesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well that was intense.

[KosarMoradi · Rating 3 out of 5]

نخستین اثری که از بکت خوندم، روایتی کوتاه، تکه‌تکه و بی‌هویت. انگار نویسنده خواب بوده و رویای عجیبی دیده و بعد از بیداری، هرچه در خواب دیده رو ذکر کرده. کتاب خالی از اسم‌ها و توضیحات و پر از خلأ که حس بی‌خانمانی شخصیت داستان رو تشدید می‌کنه
مثل انسان مدرنی که جایگاهی نداره!

[Mark Easton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stripped of all excesses, of all the facets and feelings and falsities that are attracted and multiplied by life, Beckett's writing portrays a scant, simplistic existence, and is much a pleasure to read as it is a trouble to behold.

The protagonist in both of this collection's pieces–the Expelled and First Love–is a wayward everyman: dark, brooding, possessed of a foreboding nihilism, and as far from the clutches of civilisation as from any wish or chance of salvation, if indeed there can be salvation from the roots of mankind.

Demonstrating that even in simplicity can lie an intricate and endless richness, this is, above all, reading for those who like their thoughts being rattled.

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beckett certainly writes to a bleaker depth of depressed living than many.
His story has a scent of foulness, reading First Love makes me feel physically revolted and recoil from the character as much as mentally.

However, Beckett provides a unique insight into a type of character with such frankness that other novelists can’t even get close to touching - & for this I admire his ability greatly.

[Maggie Hesseling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the years I've slowly been reading the Beckett Collectio and when I saw these 2 short stories bundled together I couldn't wait to read them. Bevcket makes the flow of consciousness seem easy- The flow, the instant ability for the reader to equate themself with the character, is what I love about his work. Originally written in French, I think I'm going to reread them in the original.

[Kasper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look into the clouded mind of a disturbed person during the course of one day of his life.

It gave me a distinct Dostoyevsky vibe ('Notes from the Underground', 'The Double' and, in particular, 'The Gentle Spirit'), and I wonder if this short story was an influence on Camus when he wrote 'The Fall'.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beckett is an amazing author who is somewhat emotionally difficult to read. The stories here fit that description, though I prefer some of his other works.

[Jacqui · Rating 2 out of 5]

not my thing

[Filipa · Rating 5 out of 5]

perhaps i loved her with a platonic love? but somehow i think not. would i have been tracing her name in old cowshit if my love had been pure and disinterested?

[Niloufar arbabian · Rating 4 out of 5]

اگه بطرف مشرق حرکت کنیم، زودتر روشن میشیم؟
مگه همه داستانها باید ادم را شوک کنن؟! اینم داستانی بود متفاوت

[Lidija · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a modern classic to the fullest by the use of the steam of conscience narrative and its literary authority.
The way the unknown narrator (in both stories, but mostly "The Expelled") steps out of the story to make a comment - he mocks and aches at the same time. There's an incredible strength in both leading characters - their mind is set - but the grave discomfort they feel is just too much to live in this world by the guidelines of society as it is. The origin of the discomfort can be a lot of things. Even though we might pity them and wish to distance ourselves from them, in their honesty they are charming and layered, and there's much sympathy for them. Eventually, we can understand them.
When reading the stories, it more to feel rather than comprehend. The fact that Beckett wrote it in French, his second language, must have influenced this conclusion. It would be interesting to read them in the original.
There are a few leitmotifs throughout both stories - hat, dead father, silence, memory loss, night sky, movement vs idleness.

[Atena | آتنا · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کشنده است خاطره ها را می گویم، بعضی چیزها را نباید فکر کرد، همان هایی که برای آدم عزیزند، یا نه، اصلا باید آن ها را فکر کرد، چون اگر فکرشان را نکنی خطر این هست که آن ها را یکی یکی در حافظه پیدا کنی. یعنی باید مدتی، یک مدت حسابی، فکرشان را بکنی، هر روز و چند بار در روز، تا وقتی که یک لایه لجن رویشان را بگیرد به طوری که دیگر نتوانی از آن رد بشوی. این قاعده کار است.

[Jakub Brudny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wyjątkowo słabe jak na Becketta, tak tak, świat jest absurdalny a życie dziwaczne i „mógłby opowiedzieć inna historię ale opowiedział tą”. No i spoko ale ja chyba nie do końca chciałem żeby ją opowiadał

[John Shields · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Beckett's unnamed protagonist tells in a forward stream of consciousness his mundane, but obscure tale of rejection, spite and perfunctory persistence.

[Chris Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth a couple of hours of anyone's time.

[Daniel Redford · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Beckett.
That's all you need to know.

[Naught · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely gorgeous and poignant

[G. Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads like a sour voicenote from some man I rejected.

[Keyrstin Jacobs]

Reminiscent of Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London," rather cynical read.

[Paul McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one captures the degradation and vagrancy of the isolated soul quite like Beckett.

[Tamar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am back weeks later to review this book. Gave it 3 stars at the time but in hindsight I would up it to 4 because my god has that tiny book stayed with me. It creeps up in my mind now and then and genuinely makes me feel very unsettled. Don’t know why I doubted the goat but I didn’t feel it when I first read it. I absolutely love media that affects me after the fact though. So uncomfortable but very real depiction of humans through a completely abstracted portrayal of one.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Choppy conclusion:
The writing just wasn't my style.
However, I do realize and appreciate that it is considered an awe-inspiring soulful, enigmatic piece of work.
-Will return to read it after I have gained more insight into the literary world.