Albert Camus (1913–1960)
Author of The Stranger
About the Author
Born in 1913 in Algeria, Albert Camus was a French novelist, dramatist, and essayist. He was deeply affected by the plight of the French during the Nazi occupation of World War II, who were subject to the military's arbitrary whims. He explored the existential human condition in such works as show more L'Etranger (The Outsider, 1942) and Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942), which propagated the philosophical notion of the "absurd" that was being given dramatic expression by other Theatre of the Absurd dramatists of the 1950s and 1960s. Camus also wrote a number of plays, including Caligula (1944). Much of his work was translated into English. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. Camus died in an automobile accident in 1960. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
Do not combine this page with the author page for A. Camus or for Camus as there are other authors with the same surname, and surname and initial.
Image credit: Albert Camus in 18 October, 1957
Series
Works by Albert Camus
The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and Selected Essays (Everyman's Library) (2004) 781 copies, 4 reviews
Jonas Ou L'Artiste Au Travail: Suivi de la Pierre Qui Pousse (Folio (Gallimard)) (French Edition) (1957) 103 copies, 2 reviews
Between Hell and Reason: Essays from the Resistance Newspaper Combat, 1944-1947 (1991) 59 copies, 2 reviews
Travels in the Americas: Notes and Impressions of a New World (The France Chicago Collection) (2023) 19 copies, 2 reviews
Oeuvres completes tome IV [Bibliotheque de la Pleiade] (French Edition) (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 10921) (2008) 15 copies, 1 review
Obras/ Works: El Reves Y El Derecho. Nupcias. El Extranjero. El Mito De Sisifo. Caligula. Carnets, 1 (Spanish Edition) (1996) 10 copies
Lo straniero - La peste - La caduta - L'esilio e il regno - Il rovescio e il diritto - Nozze - Il mito di Sisifo - L'estate - Il malinteso (1965) 8 copies
L'Étranger, La Peste, La Chute 6 copies
Obras/ Works: El Hombre Rebelde. Cronicas 1948-1953. Reflexiones Sobre La Guillotina. El Verano (Spanish Edition) (1996) 5 copies
Ribellione e morte: saggi politici 5 copies
Minotaurus 5 copies
La caduta e Discorsi di Svezia — Author — 4 copies
Albert Camus, editorialiste a l'Express: Mai 1955-fevrier 1956 (Cahiers Albert Camus) (French Edition) (1987) — Author — 4 copies, 1 review
Fiche de lecture L'Étranger de Albert Camus (analyse littéraire de référence et résumé complet) (2014) 3 copies
Obras / Works: Diarios de viaje & Carnets, 2 & La caída & Crónicas argelinas 1939-1958 (Spanish Edition) (1996) 3 copies
Esortazione ai medici della peste 3 copies
Fiche de lecture La Peste de Camus (Analyse littéraire de référence et résumé complet) (French Edition) (2018) 2 copies
Novele 2 copies
Opere di Camus 2 copies
"PREFACE" 2 copies
Albert Camus: Obras escogidas 2 copies
Pages choisies 2 copies
L'Étranger&La Peste 2 copies
Счастливая смерть [Роман]; Посторонний : [Повесть]; Чума : [Роман]; Падение : [Повесть]; Калигула :… (1993) 2 copies
Essays by Albert Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus, the Rebel, Reflections on the Guillotine (2010) 2 copies
L'homme Revolte. Edition Special Centenaire Avec Carnet Offert (French Edition) (FOLIO ESSAIS) (2013) 1 copy
D¿ơuma 1 copy
කැමූ සිතුවිලි 1 copy
Özgürlük Ve Devrim 1 copy
O xenos 1 copy
คนนอก (L'Etranher) 1 copy
L'estate 1 copy
راستان (Rastan) 1 copy
Świadek Wolności 1 copy
Избранное 1 copy
[No title] 1 copy
NJ VDEKJE E LUMTUR 1 copy
TË DREJTËT 1 copy
Новеллы : учебное пособие для педагогических институтов по специальности N 2103 "Иностранные языки" 1 copy
Obra selecta 1 copy
Δημιουργία και ελευθερία 1 copy
E PRAPMJA DHE E PËRPARMJA 1 copy
NJË KËNAQËSI E VETMUAR 1 copy
RËNIA 1 copy
MBRETËRIA DHE MËRGIMI 1 copy
NJERIU I PARË 1 copy
VERA NË ALGJER 1 copy
SANATÇI VE ÇAĞI 1 copy
Obras Completas Tomo II 1 copy
L'Eté , par Albert Camus 1 copy
l´été 1 copy
Par Robert de Luppe 1 copy
L'tranger 1 copy
Le mythe se Sisyphe 1 copy
المقصلة 1 copy
Başkaldıran İnsan 1 copy
Kẻ Ngoại Cuộc 1 copy
Noces, L'été 1 copy
Letters 1 copy
الصيف 1 copy
الضيف 1 copy
الإنسان المتمرد 1 copy
Misère de la Kabylie 1 copy
La peste - Tome 3 1 copy
Proti neredu sveta 1 copy
The Renegade or a Confused Spirit — Author — 1 copy
The Trial — Author — 1 copy
Rub a lice 1 copy
Užrašų knygelės I 1 copy
The Silent Men — Author — 1 copy
Summer 1 copy
Odabrana djela 1 copy
The Thibaults 1 copy
Esė rinktinė. D. 2 1 copy
Vous Parle 1 copy
Cahiers Albert Camus 1 copy
Denemeler 1 copy
Saggi letterari 1 copy
The Funeral 1 copy
Primeiros cadernos 1 copy
Dżuma Tom 1 1 copy
Dżuma Tom 2 1 copy
The Sea Close By 1 copy
Krisis kebebasan 1 copy
Plague Exile Kingdom 1 copy
Profil - Camus (Albert) : La Peste: analyse littéraire de l'oeuvre (Profil d'une Oeuvre) (French Edition) (2002) 1 copy
El verano / Bodas / La caída 1 copy
'Ādil'hā 1 copy
Twice A Year, No. XIV-XV 1 copy
Teatro di Albert Camus 1 copy
Opgør : Essays 1 copy
Calepins de Bibliographie 1 copy
Rencontre avec Camus. 1 copy
Desde la biblioteca: Camus 1 copy
GOJËKYÇURI RENEGATI 1 copy
Associated Works
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails (2016) — Contributor, some editions — 1,940 copies, 46 reviews
The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction (1976) — Contributor — 1,218 copies, 3 reviews
Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense (1970) — Contributor, some editions — 898 copies, 4 reviews
The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists (2000) — Contributor, some editions — 623 copies, 9 reviews
The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories (1986) — Contributor — 381 copies, 3 reviews
The Moral Life: An Introductory Reader in Ethics and Literature (1999) — Contributor — 202 copies, 2 reviews
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest (2013) — Contributor — 162 copies, 1 review
Fifty Years: Being a Retrospective Collection of Novels, Novellas, Tales, Drama, Poetry, and Reportage and Essays: All Drawn from Volumes Issued during the Last Half-Century by… (1965) — Contributor — 56 copies
The World of Law, Volumes I-II: The Law in Literature, The Law as Literature (1960) — Contributor — 54 copies
Die Sammlung der Nationalgalerie : 1945-1968 : Der geteilte Himmel : die Dokumentation einer Ausstellung (2014) — Contributor — 6 copies
L'homme revolte [de] Camus: Analyse critique (Profil d'une oeuvre ; 56) (French Edition) (1977) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Camus, Albert
- Birthdate
- 1913-11-07
- Date of death
- 1960-01-04
- Gender
- male
- Education
- University of Algiers (BA, 1935)
University of Algiers (MA, 1936) - Occupations
- novelist
essayist
playwright
journalist - Organizations
- French Communist Party
Algerian People's Party
Combat
French Resistance - Awards and honors
- Nobel Prize (Literature, 1957)
- Relationships
- Casares, Maria (partner)
Feraoun, Mouloud (friend) - Short biography
- Albert Camus was born to French-Spanish parents in Mondovi, a small village in northeastern Algeria, then a French colony. In 1933, he enrolled at the University of Algiers.. He became a theater professional and journalist, joining the staff of the Alger-Républicain in 1938. He was in Paris working for Paris-Soir magazine at the outbreak of World War II, and joined the French Resistance. After the war, he left political journalism and focused on essays, fiction, and his work as a theater producer and playwright. Camus died in an auto accident in 1960 at age 46.
- Cause of death
- car crash
- Nationality
- Algeria (birth)
France - Birthplace
- Mondovi, Algeria
- Places of residence
- Algiers, Algeria
Paris, France
Mondovi, Algeria (birth) - Place of death
- Villeblevin, Yonne, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
- Burial location
- Lourmarin Cemetery, Lourmarin, Vaucluse, France
- Map Location
- France
Algeria - Disambiguation notice
- Do not combine this page with the author page for A. Camus or for Camus as there are other authors with the same surname, and surname and initial.
Members
Discussions
Camus - His Non-Fiction - discussion in Literary Centennials (May 2018)
possibly Dystopian about Death in Name that Book (October 2015)
Camus - The Fall - discussion in Literary Centennials (January 2014)
Albert Camus - Resources and General Discussion in Literary Centennials (December 2013)
Camus - The Plague - discussion in Literary Centennials (August 2013)
Camus - The Stranger (aka Outsider) - discussion in Literary Centennials (March 2013)
Camus - A Happy Death - discussion in Literary Centennials (January 2013)
***GroupRead: The Plague (Spoiler Free) in 75 Books Challenge for 2010 (April 2010)
Reviews
The Book Report: Told as a long monologue stretched over several days, Jean-Baptiste Clamence reviews the very great highs of his life as a respected criminal attorney, and the very great lows of his life as a libertine without a discernible conscience or moral compass. He narrates his life to an unseen and unheard Other, a tourist from France in Clamence's adopted home of Amsterdam who runs into Clamence at a seedy bar. At each major turning point in Clamence's life, the narrative adds show more another level of self-serving horribleness, and the reader recognizes the commonality of all people with each other in Clamence's descent...fall...from the peaks of public acclaim and well-wishing into the pits of a personal hell, made up of the deeds done and undone that bend us into new internal shapes with our regrets.
My Review: I read La Peste when I was seventeen, and I ***HATED*** it. I was angry at the waste of so much as a single tree to print it, in any and all languages and countries around the world. I despised each and every syllable. I vowed never, ever, ever to read another word by Camus. From that cold winter's night in 1976 to the point I was forced by the Book Circle to pick this book up, I kept to that promise.
Well. I sit corrected. La Chute is a fascinating moral tale told by a story-teller of great power and flawless control of his material and his language. (I am reliably informed that the original French is superb; this translation is sterling.) I am so glad that I didn't make the mistake of letting my teenaged judgment stand unchallenged. I would have missed out on a life high point in reading. I am accused, with Clamence, of leading a life grounded in the illusions of one's own superiority, one's own infallible rightness. HA! Wisdom comes, when it does, at a high price...the life of an innocent, the decision to be silent, the power of life and death over a virtual stranger are all things that happen to many, even most, of us; they're not always instantly obvious, of course, so we let them slide away unmarked. But how do *you* know that your call to complain about the service you received didn't result in someone losing a last-chance job, spiraling into depression, and ending her life? You don't. Clamence does. (That didn't happen in the book, by the bye.)
This book did what only the very best books written by the very best writers can do: It reoriented my internal compass. Permanently. Read it! Soon! show less
My Review: I read La Peste when I was seventeen, and I ***HATED*** it. I was angry at the waste of so much as a single tree to print it, in any and all languages and countries around the world. I despised each and every syllable. I vowed never, ever, ever to read another word by Camus. From that cold winter's night in 1976 to the point I was forced by the Book Circle to pick this book up, I kept to that promise.
Well. I sit corrected. La Chute is a fascinating moral tale told by a story-teller of great power and flawless control of his material and his language. (I am reliably informed that the original French is superb; this translation is sterling.) I am so glad that I didn't make the mistake of letting my teenaged judgment stand unchallenged. I would have missed out on a life high point in reading. I am accused, with Clamence, of leading a life grounded in the illusions of one's own superiority, one's own infallible rightness. HA! Wisdom comes, when it does, at a high price...the life of an innocent, the decision to be silent, the power of life and death over a virtual stranger are all things that happen to many, even most, of us; they're not always instantly obvious, of course, so we let them slide away unmarked. But how do *you* know that your call to complain about the service you received didn't result in someone losing a last-chance job, spiraling into depression, and ending her life? You don't. Clamence does. (That didn't happen in the book, by the bye.)
This book did what only the very best books written by the very best writers can do: It reoriented my internal compass. Permanently. Read it! Soon! show less
Exile and the Kingdom is a collection of six obstruse and challenging short stories that are, for the patient reader, ultimately rewarding ones. Each of the stories presents a scenario which communicates author Albert Camus' ideas of absurdist philosophy, with their protagonists each at a muted crossroads in their lives. There's an impressively complete air of quiet desolation hanging over each of the stories, a sense of struggle matched by the hope of something more (we must imagine show more Sisyphus happy) – or, as one of the stories puts it, "he still had to discover what he had not yet clearly understood, although he had always known it and had always painted as if he knew it" (pg. 112). Hence the title of the collection: they are each in a sort of exile but are seeking out the kingdom.
This sense of latent discovery extends to the reader, who has to be patient with the stories' slow-build and their heavily-laden prose style. Each one grips, quietly, once you commit to them, but they take a while to get there. Because of this, and the sophistication of the ideas – many of which only become clear after much reflection from the reader, and perhaps a bit of googling – this book certainly won't be for everyone. His novel The Plague remains the most accessible introduction to Camus; the apparent brevity of the short stories in Exile and the Kingdom proves to be something of a Siren song. show less
This sense of latent discovery extends to the reader, who has to be patient with the stories' slow-build and their heavily-laden prose style. Each one grips, quietly, once you commit to them, but they take a while to get there. Because of this, and the sophistication of the ideas – many of which only become clear after much reflection from the reader, and perhaps a bit of googling – this book certainly won't be for everyone. His novel The Plague remains the most accessible introduction to Camus; the apparent brevity of the short stories in Exile and the Kingdom proves to be something of a Siren song. show less
reading this, camus was my constant companion for a month and i miss him already. it's almost like grief, to get to know someone's thoughts so intimately through a book of essays, knowing he died so young. i really could have done without the inclusion of the extended preface to the roger martin du gard anthology but otherwise every single essay in here struck some kind of chord with me, gave me something new to think about. particularly taken with the lyrical essays and the final interview. show more ugh, he's everything to me :( show less
I have long been interested in plague literature, so I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to get round this example. It's a great entry in the genre, too. It does some of the things that most plague lit does (describes the various kinds of reactions people have to the disaster and uses those reactions to examine human nature, for example), but Camus goes farther and gives us more detailed character studies, using the plague as a backdrop for their reactions and interactions. It's a show more particularly fascinating - and in several ways troubling - read right now; both the parallels and some of the divergent points are sad-making when compared to how our society is handling our current outbreak. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 367
- Also by
- 58
- Members
- 108,733
- Popularity
- #80
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 1,317
- ISBNs
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