The StrangerSince it was first published in English, in 1946, Albert Camus's extraordinary first novel, The Stranger (L'Etranger), has had a profound impact on millions of American readers. Through this 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 an illuminating new American translation (the only English version available for more than forty years was done by a British translator), the original intent of The Stranger is made more immediate, as Matthew Ward captures in exact and lucid language precisely what Camus said and how he said it, thus giving this haunting novel a new life for generations to come. Albert Camus, son of a working-class family, was born in Algeria in 1913. He spent the early years of his life in North Africa, where he worked at Various jobs -- in the weather bureau, in an automobile-accessory firm, in a shipping company -- to help pay for his courses at the University of Algiers. He then turned to journalism as a career. His report on the unhappy state of the Muslims of the Kabylie region aroused the Algerian government to action and brought him public notice. From 1935 to 1938 he ran the Theatre de L'Equipe, a theatrical company that produced plays by Malraux, Gide, Synge, Dostoevski, and others. During World War II he was one of the leading writers of the French Resistance and editor of Combat, then an important underground newspaper. Camus was always very active in the theater, and several of his plays have been published and produced. His fiction, including The Stranger, The Plague, The Fall, and Exile and theKingdom; his philosophical essays, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel; and his plays have assured his preeminent position in modern French letters. In 1957 Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. His sudden death on January 4, 1960, cut short the career of one of the most important literary figures of the Western world when he was at the very summit of his powers. |
From inside the book
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Page 9
... eyes closed , the whiteness of the room seemed even brighter than before . There wasn't a shadow any- where in front of me , and every object , every angle and curve stood out so sharply it made my eyes hurt . That's when Maman's ...
... eyes closed , the whiteness of the room seemed even brighter than before . There wasn't a shadow any- where in front of me , and every object , every angle and curve stood out so sharply it made my eyes hurt . That's when Maman's ...
Page 58
... eyes in the fiery air . The sound of the waves was even lazier , more drawn out than at noon . It was the same sun ... eye be- cause I hadn't stopped watching the Arab . It occurred to me that all I had to do was turn around and that ...
... eyes in the fiery air . The sound of the waves was even lazier , more drawn out than at noon . It was the same sun ... eye be- cause I hadn't stopped watching the Arab . It occurred to me that all I had to do was turn around and that ...
Page 59
... eye- brows dripped down over my eyelids all at once and covered them with a warm , thick film . My eyes were blinded behind the curtain of tears and salt . All I could feel were the cymbals of sunlight crashing on my fore- head and ...
... eye- brows dripped down over my eyelids all at once and covered them with a warm , thick film . My eyes were blinded behind the curtain of tears and salt . All I could feel were the cymbals of sunlight crashing on my fore- head and ...
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Common terms and phrases
ALBERT Camus Algiers already answered anymore anyway Arabs asked beach blood sausage Caligula Camus caretaker casket Céleste Céleste's cell chair cigarette coffee courtroom crying dark director door dress everything eyes face feel felt Fernandel funeral gotten hair hand hard head hear heard hearse heart jury knew laughed lawyer leaned listened live looked magistrate Maman Marengo Marie Marie's Masson Matthew Ward minute mother Myth of Sisyphus never night noticed oilcloth old Salamano once panama hat parricide PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY Pérez presiding judge pretty prison prosecutor questions Raymond realized Rudolph Ruzicka seemed shouted silence smile smoked sound started stood stopped street streetcar sure sweat swim talking tell thing thought tired told took town I loved turned understand voice waited walked wanted to know watch waved wife