Ficiton. MURPHY, when first published in 1938, was Beckett's first novel and third work of ficiton. Very Irish in the post-Joycean tradition, it nevertheless was the beginning of a new form of literary expression as some discerning critics recognized at the time, drawing heavily on the author's time spent in London as a young man, and especially on his experiences as a male nurse. It has for many years been one of the most popular novels of one of the most seminal figures of the twentieth century. There's a sort of comfort in the dry, bare, language, in the spooky imagery and the incantatory repetitions... -- Howard Kinlay.