Samuel Beckett story to be published 80 years after it was rejected

Nobel laureate was told by publisher that 'people will shudder and be puzzled and confused' by reading Echo's Bones

A previously unpublished story by Samuel Beckett will go on sale in bookshops for the first time, 80 years after his publisher rejected it as a nightmare read that gave him "the jim-jams".

The enigmatic story, entitled Echo's Bones, was originally commissioned as a final story for More Pricks Than Kicks, his collection of inter-related stories published in 1934. But his publisher at the time, Charles Prentice at Chatto & Windus, turned down the tale for being far too difficult and strange. Prentice broke the news to Beckett in a blunt letter: "It is a nightmare It gives me the jim-jams Echo's Bones would, I am sure, lose the book a great many readers. People will shudder and be puzzled and confused; and they won't be keen on analysing the shudder." He added: "I hate having to say this."