Το τέλος

by Samuel Beckett, Θάλεια Μελή-Χωλλ (translator)

Το τέλος γράφτηκε το 1946 στα γαλλικά με τον τίτλο La Fin και το 1954 μεταφράστηκε στα αγγλικά από τον ίδιο τον συγγραφέα με τον τίτλο The End. Μέσω αφήγησης σε πρώτο πρόσωπο, παρακολουθούμε τη σταδιακή αποξένωση και αποδόμηση (βιολογική, ψυχική και πνευματική) του ήρωα. Η πλοκή της ζωής του έχει ήδη προηγηθεί και την πορεία της τελικής ευθείας διατρέχει η γλώσσα και το ύφος του Μπέκετ: Λόγος τολμηρός, ωμός, φαινομενικά «αθώος λογοτεχνίας»· σαρκασμός, χιούμορ, ειρωνεία· γλώσσα υπαινικτική, ανατρεπτική, ανελέητη, ποιητική (άλλοτε με εσκεμμένη επιτήδευση και άλλοτε με σπαρακτική γνησιότητα)· κοινωνικοί, πολιτικοί και θρησκευτικοί σχολιασμοί, χωρίς διδακτισμό. Σχοινοβατώντας ανάμεσα στην ελεύθερη βούληση και τη μοίρα, ο ήρωας περιφέρεται ως «σάρκα ζωντανή» στο «γνωστό σκηνικό του μεγαλείου και της ερήμωσης». Ένα έργο δυνατό που προσφέρεται για πολλαπλή ανάγνωση.

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

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

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

[Emma Angeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Beckett I really do. Arguably not his best but I still enjoyed these stories (is enjoy the right word?). They’re still quintessentially Beckett in that way that they don’t make sense and you need to reread bits because what the hell is going on. It doesn’t need to make sense tho, isn’t that the point of Beckett? if you try to understand you’ve already fundamentally misunderstood.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the End
A review of the Penguin Modern paperback (2018) of two stories selected from the Penguin Classics paperback First Love and Other Novellas (1980) translated (1) by Richard Seaver in collaboration with the author & (2) by the author, from the French language Les Éditions de Minuit paperback Nouvelles et textes pour rien (1955) and first written in 1946-47.

To beg with your hands in your pockets makes a bad impression, it irritates the workers, especially in winter. You should never wear gloves either.

This consists of two short stories The End (1946) and The Calmative (1946-47). The End marked the beginning of Samuel Beckett becoming a French language author. He actually began the story in English and switched to French halfway through. Afterwards his works were always written in French and only later translated into English. The other major breakthrough at the time was having his works discovered and published by Les Éditions de Minuit who became his forever publisher leading to the breakout success of En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot - 1952).

Both of the stories deal with vagabond/vagrant characters who eventually succumb to death, perhaps under the influence of a "calmative" which is mentioned in both. The End is the more approachable plotted story and The Calmative is more abstract and touches on the absurd dark comedy that Beckett later became known for.

I am in the process of recovering from the 2-month 2025 Long Books Challenge. At other times stories like these might seem difficult to approach. But they were somewhat of a relief to me at this time, accounting for the 5-star rating.

Soundtrack
No question this had to be the Jim Morrison and The Doors song The End but I chose the doom laden cover version by Nico which you can listen to on YouTube here or on Spotify here.

Trivia and Links
Read the background to the writing of The End at The Day Samuel Beckett Became a French Writer at France-Amérique June 21, 2023.

Although originally written as a short story, The End has also been adapted as a theatrical work at Festival Beckett 2025 which you can read about here. It was premiered by the Samuel Beckett theatrical specialists Gare St Lazare Ireland.

[Lilly Minasyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well when the ratings of the book is pretty low but you loved it nonetheless. Glad the reviews didn’t hold me back from reading this beautiful small book. Some of the sentences in the book were so thought provoking. Some paragraphs sounded poems.
I think the author tried to showcase how there are so many people who are unnoticed by the rest, how those unnoticed people are trying to carry on with their lives without any assistance.
I liked how the character tried to see the beauty and didn’t lose himself. It was pretty sad, especially the very last page.
Beautifully written.

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The End is a chronicle of a homeless man at the end of his life - his struggles, degradations and suffering. I found it devastating. The Calmative is more dreamlike, less cohesive - a wondering man, also at the end of his life, looking back - I found it hard to follow his thoughts. These are dark, dark stories.

[Daniel T · Rating 2 out of 5]

شاید بتوان گفت اکثر انسان ها آینده خود را درخشان و آسوده می‌بینند، یا شاید هم جز فلاکت چیزی به چشمشان نمیخورد.

شخصیت نام نابرده در این داستان کوتاه را درست وقتی‌ می‌یابیم که در حال ادای سخنان ملتمسانه است تا او را از آسایشگاه بیرون نکنند، او با چشمانی نگران می‌گوید فرصتی به من دهید تا این بار کار آمد باشم، ولی دل کسی به حال این پیر نخواهد سوخت و تنها با مقداری لباس و پول او را در این دنیای بزرگ رها می‌کنند.

شخصیت گمنامْ مردی است فلاکت زده، آواره و بی سر پناه که مرگ در پس تنهایی به انتظار وی نشسته است، مرگی که گمان نمی‌کنم با اینکه ابدا فجیع نیست هیچکدام دوست داشته باشیم چنین پایانی داشته باشیم.

[Read A Day Club · Rating 4 out of 5]

“At times I felt its wooden life invade me, till I myself became a piece of old wood.”

Samuel Beckett’s writing is fundamentally grim and sour, describing the decaying depths of human life, the violence of disease, and the dissolution of death.

It’s a story much too aware of the disquiet and angst it gives rise to, The End is a powerful and intense exploration of the anonymity of isolation, how it penetrates and infects any semblance of a meaningful life; how it haunts not just the waking life of an individual but dreams as well, turning hope into nightmare, expression into horror.

At the heart of Beckett’s descriptions of nature is a kind of helplessness that leads, inevitably, to decay and suffering. Everything Beckett writes about flows in the currents of existentialism, immorality, and deterioration.

He writes in a way that feels matter-of-fact and personal, it’s imaginative and grotesque, rife with rich symbolism and intelligence that grips you unaware. It’s fast-paced, absurd, carnal, and harsh in its nihilism. You can read it as humorous or melancholic, laughable or quixotic, how you look at it depends on how you choose to read it. It will unnerve you nevertheless.

“There was that strange light which follows a day of persistent rain, when the sun comes out and the sky clears too late to be of any use. The earth makes a sound as of sighs and the last drops fall from the emptied cloudless sky.”

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few years ago I had the pleasure of reading "Waiting for Godot" which I remember I quite enjoyed. That's why I decided to pick up this little book that includes two stories by the same author, Samuel Beckett. I must say I was disappointed, I did not find the wit I remembered from the work of his I read in the past. In my opinion both of these stories were quite boring and I really didn't enjoy them very much.

[Yoana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story, The End, is a vivid chronicle of an anonymous man's last days on earth. He is released from an institution, prison or a hospital with possibly a wounded skull and left to fend for himself. It's a heartbreaking tale of spiralling into helplessness, despite the completely dispassionate tone. I felt genuinely sorry for him, hoping against hope for his fate.

The second one seems to be a more erratic, less coherent version of the first.

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Profoundly shitty.

[Ted Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think many reviewers here may be missing the point: the drive behind much of Beckett's prose is the desire to produce in the reader feelings of boredom, frustration and anger that serve as an allegory for modernity. Great stuff.

[Cali · Rating 3 out of 5]

ah, beckett... dark, erratic, and incoherent. the calmative > the end, though neither made a lick of sense!

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

gross

[Raya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beckett makes me nervous.

This time, it's safe to say, things have changed. I picked this one up as it was available for a cheap price. I started reading it, and within few minutes, I was glued.

Arguably the biggest merit of this little book is its abject physicality of the existential terror no one wants to experience. I have not read the works of any other author who portrays this feeling with such bleak yet fascinating intensity as Beckett does. Giving such gut-wrenching expressions to these subtle and abstract ideas, he creates sense in apparent nonsense.

The two stories here have a anonymous homeless man as their shared protagonist. Entangled in near surrealist circumstances, this man's life is decaying in front of his own eyes while he passes each day as a man left to his penultimate decay and deterioration.

While the classical Beckettian themes are intact in this one, what impressed me the most was how engaging this was compared to Waiting for Godot. Beckett carries you with his protagonist, as he hovers in what feels like a cosmic array of vague fever dreams and awakenings.

"To know I had a being, however faint and false, outside of me, had once had the power to stir my heart. It's enough to make you wonder sometimes if you are on the right planet"

Short, speculative and dense, read this and I believe it may make you uncomfortable but also think.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The End is a short story where main character tells his tale of what has happened to him after been expelled from an institution of care. He tries to finds his way in the world, but eventually he realises he cannot live a life on his own, which eventually leads to his own demise.

The short story carries themes of vagueness, decay, and humiliation. The main character can barely recognise himself let alone where he fits in the outside world, and goes about the city trying to find a way to fit in, only to realise that he cannot.

This is another great work by Beckett, and is a fast paced read.

[Saoirse]

The second story didn't even make any sense ! The first was meh. Some things ftom the past should be left alone in the past. Especially books. There are plenty of books waiting to be read. What a waste of time. :X

[Matthew Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly appeals to lovers of absurd nihilism - this is a real treat!

[Liam O'Leary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not something I'd advise anyone read carefully. Bad representation of his ability as a writer, his scripts do better. These stories go on and on, but they are meant to, so for most people they will be tedious, however I think he does get a point across and express the view that life does go on even in spite of everything (for a black comedic effect rather than optimism).

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very odd book. Second 1900s irish author I’ve read recently with a weird flowing style that kind of has to he reread to understand at times to be understood. Absurd and nonsensical at times but in a way i enjoyed. I liked the structure of the two chapters/stories and how they connect. Goes from the most vulgar nonsense to some of the most beautiful and touching passages I’ve read before which is fun. Quite a sad story of someone rejected by society but still manages to be bluntly humorous at times. Overall i thought it was unique and pretty cool

[Madeline Church · Rating 2 out of 5]

hmmm, kinda a gross read tbh

[Sol · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5*

[leni swagger · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Real scratching is superior to masturbation, in my opinion." ooookay…

[Xavier Kvitberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

will I say I totally understood everything? yadontknow but a great premise under 60 pages is priceless man

[Parsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The End" provides a chaotic mixture of sensations beyond the boundaries of language. It is a story (yes, I do believe the two stories of the book constitute one totality) you should immerse yourself in. Reading it requires surrendering oneself to the flow of the text without trying too hard to understand what’s going on, since the understanding itself negates what Beckett is about. I might not be able to give an accurate account of a clear meaning, a tangible storyline or a comprehensible summary of "The End", yet I feel like I am departing with a very rich experience. An "experience" in a very strict sense of the word; of emotions previously unbeknownst to me, an oven into which I was briefly put and emerged from with a worldview that feels slightly more done; however difficult it might be for me to pin down exactly what has changed in me. Beckett's wise choice of vocabulary, never too verbose, distinctive grammar (or lack thereof), combined with his signature style of narration conveyed to me complex emotions that urge me to pick up another Beckett book as soon as I can.

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Beckett I've read and I can say at least that it's good to have done that. Beckett had a revelation on a visit home to his mother in Dublin at age 39, of which he stated: "I realized that Joyce had gone as far as one could in the direction of knowing more, [being] in control of one's material. He was always adding to it.... I realized that my own way was in impoverishment, in lack of knowledge and in taking away, in subtracting rather than in adding." The fruits of this insight are certainly relevant here, both literally in the choice of vagrants (if indeed there are two) as protagonists, and literarily in the relative poverty of detail in "The End" and of logic in "The Calmative". I liked how those worked, though I'm not sure I would seek out more of the same.

[ayyluluu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing prose, written originally in French and translated in English by the author himself. He managed to portrait thoughts of the people least seen and least cared about - homeless and dead corpse. ‘The End’ is the world of the former, I have rarely read something that clinically depressive. ‘The Calmative’, on the other hand, are thoughts of the person that discovered himself dead and yet there is curiosity about the life left in him. Both characters share hopeless apathy and fear of fully existing.

"I might have told, a story in the likeness of my life, I mean without the courage to end or the strenght to go on" (‘The End’)

"I am too frightened this evening to listen to myself rot" (‘The Calmative’)

[Inside My Library Mind · Rating 2 out of 5]

The thing with Beckett is that he explores the absurd and pointless of human existence. And sometimes it works. However, sometimes, it is tedious and boring. Waiting for Godot is brilliant, but these two short stories were very underwhelming and the definition of "meh".

[Fiona McPartlan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely absurd, reads like one big run on sentence in a way.

[James Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beckett writes in the first person in both short stories included in this slim volume, and the narrative voice remains consistently controlled. Mortality is the topic of both stories, and he gives an illuminated monologue on the matter in both instances. He also has an interesting relationship with both the comma and the paragraph, utilising a detachable and propulsive language, and this allows the modulation of prose to feel simultaneously colloquial and erratic, perhaps emulating the degradation of cognitive capability in those approaching the quiet beyond, perhaps emulating the unspoken, unacknowledged panic or fear of those in their dwindling hours. Formally somewhat experimental, and certainly reflective of that murky divide between modern and postmodern fiction, these two short stories can be whisked through in less than an afternoon, and are a nice gateway into Beckett’s other writing, if they are found to be to your tastes. Coming to this after reading some of Beckett’s short plays/experiments with theatrical pieces, I sense a corollary between his penchant for scrutiny of the individual through theatre, and rumination on the experience of the individual as a whole in his prose. I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in a brief taster of the Samuel Beckett experience, or anyone who needs something to read between more substantial tomes.

[felix · Rating 4 out of 5]

'the calmatives' is so unreal and strange yet tender and possesses this shadowy character as you're never able to truly catch it giving it a dream like feel with its subtle meditations on loneliness and desire and whatever else one can find in it. to me, it felt much more like a poem than a short story!

'the end' touched me less sadly, but i loved its finisher:

'The memory came faint and cold of the story I might have told, a story in the likeness of my life, I mean without the courage to end or the strength to go on.'

[Angelo IG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Τα δύο διηγήματα του Μπέκετ είναι μια μαεστρία του υπαρξιακού τρόμου και της αφηγηματικής πειραματικότητας. Το "The End" είναι πιο εξωτερικό και σαρωτικό, με κινηματογραφικές σκηνές βιοποριστικής μάχης (πιο straightforward, αλλά με φιλοσοφικό υπόβαθρο), ενώ το "The Calmative" είναι πιο εσωτερικό και ποιητικό, με μεγαλύτερη έμφαση στην ψυχολογία του αφηγητή.

The End:
Ένας ανώνυμος άνδρας εκδιώκεται από ένα ίδρυμα και ρίχνεται στους δρόμους με τα ρούχα ενός νεκρού και λίγα χρήματα που του δίνουν "για να κάνει μια αρχή". Ακολουθεί η απέλπιδα προσπάθειά του να βρει καταφύγιο, από υπογείους χώρους μέχρι σπηλιές και ερείπια, ενώ καταδύεται σταδιακά σε έσχατη φτώχεια και κοινωνική περιθωριοποίηση. Η ιστορία καταγράφει την σωματική και ψυχική του διάβρωση σε έναν κόσμο χωρίς έλεος.

The Calmative:
Πυκνό και ποιητικό, πιο δύσκολο σε σχέση με το "The End". Ο γερασμένος αφηγητής (που φαίνεται να βρίσκεται σε μια αφηρημένη κατάσταση μεταθανάτιας ύπαρξης ή παραίσθησης) περιπλανιέται σε ένα ερημωμένο αστικό τοπίο, αναπολώντας το παρελθόν του και ψάχνοντας ηρεμία. Η αφήγηση είναι μη γραμμική, γεμάτη με εικόνες φθοράς και απόκοσμες συναντήσεις (ένα αγόρι με κατσίκα, ένας μυστηριώδης άντρας σε παγκάκι που θέλει να τον φιλήσει κτλ.). Ο ηλικιωμένος άντρας, φαίνεται να αντιμετωπίζει μια υπαρξιακή κρίση, αναζητώντας νόημα σε έναν κόσμο που γίνεται ολοένα πιο απόκοσμος. Σε αρκετά σημεία δύσκολο να ακολουθήσεις τις σκέψεις του ήρωα.

Συνολικά, και τα δύο έργα επιβεβαιώνουν το μοναδικό στυλ του Μπέκετ: Μια αμείλικτη, αλλά ποιητική, αναγνώριση του ότι η ανθρώπινη ύπαρξη είναι μια αδιάκοπη πτώση χωρίς λύτρωση. Η γραφή τους είναι ταυτόχρονα οδυνηρή και μεγαλειώδης, άλλοτε ωμή και άλλοτε ελαφρώς ειρωνική. Ένα μνημείο της αβεβαιότητας και της ανθρώπινης πάλης. Προσωπικά (έχω περίεργο γούστο γενικά) μου άρεσε περισσότερο το The Calmative, χωρίς να σημαίνει ότι το The End υστερεί.