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When a young Algerian named Meursault kills a man, his subsequent imprisonment and trial are puzzling and absurd. The apparently amoral Meursault--who puts little stock in ideas like love and God--seems to be on trial less for his murderous actions, and more for what the authorities believe is his deficient character.… (more)
DLSmithies: A compare-and-contrast exercise - Raskolnikov is all nervous energy and hypertension, whereas Meursault is detatched, calm, and won't pretend to feel remorse. Two masterpieces.
HollyMS: I read both works in French class. Though Albert Camus denied being an existentialist, both L'Étranger (The Stranger) and Huis Clos (No Exit) have some common themes and are among some of the most important 20th century French works of literature.
The Stranger was written in 1942 by Nobel prize-winning Algerian author Albert Camus and has been translated from French. It is hailed as a literary classic and masterpiece of existential philosophy and absurdism.
The story is set in Algiers. It begins with the narrator, a man called Meursault, going to pay his respects to his mother who has just died in a nursing home. In the second half of the book his friend Raymond gets into a fight with some Arabs on the beach. One of the Arabs is brother to Raymond’s ex-girlfriend, who Raymond beat up for cheating on him. Meursault talks Raymond out of shooting them, takes the gun, but later ends up shooting one of the men himself. He is put on trial, but the trial seems to focus more on his lack of emotion around his mother’s death than the events of the shooting.
Although I can appreciate the quality of the writing and depth of thought, I would have to honestly say I did not enjoy this book. The characters were not likeable, were repulsive even, and the story not particularly gripping. Maybe it was just too clever and sophisticated for me. ( )
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.
Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.
Quotations
And I, too, felt ready to start life all over again. It was if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I'd been happy, and that I was happy still.
Last words
For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.
When a young Algerian named Meursault kills a man, his subsequent imprisonment and trial are puzzling and absurd. The apparently amoral Meursault--who puts little stock in ideas like love and God--seems to be on trial less for his murderous actions, and more for what the authorities believe is his deficient character.
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Book description
The day his mother dies, Meursault notices that it is very hot on the bus that is taking him from Algiers to the retirement home where his mother lived; so hot that he falls asleep.
Later, while waiting for the wake to begin, the harsh electric lights in the room make him extremely uncomfortable, so he gratefully accepts the coffee the caretaker offers him and smokes a cigarette. The same burning sun that so oppresses him during the funeral walk will once again blind the calm, reserved Meursault as he walks along a deserted beach a few days later-leading him to commit an irreparable act.
This new edition of Camus's classic novel The Stranger portrays an enigmatic man who commits a senseless crime and then calmly, and apparently indifferently, sits through his trial and hears himself condemned to death
Haiku summary
Je suis étranger. Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Et je ne pleure pas.
The Stranger was written in 1942 by Nobel prize-winning Algerian author Albert Camus and has been translated from French. It is hailed as a literary classic and masterpiece of existential philosophy and absurdism.
The story is set in Algiers. It begins with the narrator, a man called Meursault, going to pay his respects to his mother who has just died in a nursing home. In the second half of the book his friend Raymond gets into a fight with some Arabs on the beach. One of the Arabs is brother to Raymond’s ex-girlfriend, who Raymond beat up for cheating on him. Meursault talks Raymond out of shooting them, takes the gun, but later ends up shooting one of the men himself. He is put on trial, but the trial seems to focus more on his lack of emotion around his mother’s death than the events of the shooting.
Although I can appreciate the quality of the writing and depth of thought, I would have to honestly say I did not enjoy this book. The characters were not likeable, were repulsive even, and the story not particularly gripping. Maybe it was just too clever and sophisticated for me. ( )