The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Novel by Samuel Beckett, originally written in French as Malone meurt (1951) and translated by the author into English. It is the second narrative in the trilogy that began with MOLLOY and concluded with THE UNNAMABLE. The novel's narrator, Malone, is dying. He spends his time writing an inventory of his meager possessions, a description of his condition, and stories about a character who is clearly an aspect of himself. Malone's struggles to tell his character's story can be viewed as a satire on the creative process as well as an attempt to understand the essence of the self.