"Fizzles" and Samuel Beckett's Earlier Fiction

Abstract

In developing the innovative style that characterizes his fiction, Samuel Beckett abandoned many of the traditional conventions of novel writing. One of these conventions specifies that unless a work is designated as the continuation or sequel of an earlier one, characters and episodes should not be carried over from one novel to another. But in Beckett's fiction, characters, locales, action, and themes from earlier works often do reappear. Sometimes the same heroes who allude to a fictional predecessor in one work become the topic of discussion in a subsequent work. Watt makes an appearance in Mercier and Camier; Moran speaks about Watt and Mercier in Molloy; Mercier and Moran are mentioned in Malone Dies. 1 In the later novels and