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Loading... The Stranger (original 1942; edition 1989)by Albert Camus
Work detailsThe Stranger by Albert Camus (1942)
 xieouyang | May 25, 2013 |  I can't decide on a rating for this - I'm going to have to think about it some more. Definitely brilliant, I'm just not sure how I feel about it! (  ) heterocephalusglaber | Apr 26, 2013 | An example of absurdism, this novel and it's main character left me cold. I can usually find something to connect with, but the disconnect of the main character is so complete I can't relate to him in the slightest. (  )1  DK_Atkinson | Apr 14, 2013 | First read this in my late teen. The 3 stars are correct. The alienation, the void of Meursault's life are what shine out for me. But the violence against women, the animal abuse, the racism even if they were in character and of the time just made me recoil. I had forgotten about them or I was too young for them to register the last time I read it. (  ) writerlibrarian | Apr 7, 2013 | OK, laugh all you want, but I had never heard of this book and had no idea it was so popular or influential when I read it. I just saw it and picked it up and read it. And was blown away. Certainly not the feel good book of the summer, but it did affect me strongly and I recommend it, if there is anyone else out there who hasn't read it yet. (  )1 bongo_x | Apr 6, 2013 |
 It is quite a trick to write of life & death, as Camus does, in terms of an almost total social and moral vacuum. He may get philosophical satisfaction from it. Most readers will call it philosophic doodling.  "The Stranger,” a novel of crime and punishment by Albert Camus, published today, should touch off in this country a renewed burst of discussion about the young French writers who are at the moment making more unusual literary news than the writers of any other country. Is contained inExile and the Kingdom / The Myth of Sisyphus / The Rebel / The Stranger by Albert Camus Obras completas by Albert Camus " Postoronnii". " Chuma". " Padenie". - Rasskazy i esse. by Al'ber Kamiu Is parodied inHas as a student's study guide
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The plot is simple. A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. The trial's proceedings are absurd, a parsing of incidental trivialities--that Meursault, for instance, seemed unmoved by his own mother's death and then attended a comic movie the evening after her funeral are two ostensibly damning facts--so that the eventual sentence the jury issues is both ridiculous and inevitable.
Meursault remains a cipher nearly to the story's end--dispassionate, clinical, disengaged from his own emotions. "She wanted to know if I loved her," he says of his girlfriend. "I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't." There's a latent ominousness in such observations, a sense that devotion is nothing more than self-delusion. It's undoubtedly true that Meursault exhibits an extreme of resignation; however, his confrontation with "the gentle indifference of the world" remains as compelling as it was when Camus first recounted it. --Ben Guterson
(retrieved from Amazon Tue, 21 Sep 2010 02:00:42 -0400)
A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. In the story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sun-drenched Algerian beach, Camus was exploring what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd". Now in a new American translation, the classic has been given new life for generations to come.… (more)
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Two editions of this book were published by Audible.com.
Penguin AustraliaThree editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.
Editions: 0141182504, 0241950058, 0141389583
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Wikipedia in English (3)
The second part deals with Meursault's imprisonment, trial and the death sentence by guillotine. There are a lot of absurd events while he is in prison and during the trial. Absurdities also abound in the first part.
The only constant throughout all these events is Meursault's lack of interest and response to these events. There is no emotional reaction on his part but, rather, takes all the events as things that happen and he is just like an unattached observer. He has no preconceptions, no morals but only physical desires, up to a point. This is well illustrated by the novel's first paragraph, when he starts narrating about his mother's death:
"Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't now. I got a telegram from the home: 'Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.' That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday"
So the book starts with his mother's death, to which his reaction is indifference, and ends with his upcoming death to which he is also indifferent. He is cold and unfeeling throughout the novel. Despite this character that is not very appealing, I think the novel itself is very good. Mainly because it makes you think about life in general and the importance of events throughout one's life. (