Murphy, first published in 1938, is an avant-garde novel, the third work of prose fiction by the Irish author and dramatist Samuel Beckett.

This seems to be a habit for Murphy, who in carrying out the ritual attempts to enter a near-if-not-totally-nonexistent state of being (possibly something akin to sensory deprivation), which he finds pleasurable.

Murphy's "meditation" is further interrupted by a call from his current lover, Celia Kelly, who became a prostitute following the deaths of her parents at a young age.

Murphy begins work as a nurse at the Magdalen Mental Mercyseat in north London, finding the insanity of the patients an appealing alternative to conscious existence.

Murphy, gone to ground in London lodgings and then in the hospital, is pursued by a ragtag troupe of eccentrics from his own country, each with their own often-conflicting motivations.

Later, when Miss Counihan is sitting on Wylie's knee, Beckett sardonically explains that this did not occur in Wynn's Hotel, the Dublin establishment where earlier dialogue took place.

What he turns to instead is nothingness, and he leaves a letter to Celia requesting that his ashes be flushed down the toilet of the Abbey Theatre during a performance after immolating himself with gas in his bedroom at the hospital.