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L'Etranger by Albert Camus
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L'Etranger (edition 1957)

by Albert Camus

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35,35250170 (3.94)1 / 752
This is the story of a man who is living the life of the “absurd” as described by Camus in the Myth of Sisyphus. However, it is only his senseless and unintended murder of an Arab and his subsequent imprisonment and trial which bring him to a full appreciation of his life and how he has led it.

In the first part of the book, Meursault is shown as both separated from and indifferent to life. He does not cry at his mother’s funeral, he agrees to become the “copain” of his disreputable neighbor, Raymond Sintes, because he can think of no reason not to, and he assents to Marie’s desire to marry while recognizing that he does not actually love her. This indifference does not prevent him from living the ordinary day-to-day life and going through all the proper motions, including performing well in his job.

But then he shoots the Arab on the beach, and the best explanation he can make is that thirst and the heat of the sun caused him to do it. While in prison and in the course of his trial he begins to reflect more on his life. Rather than reject the life he has led, he becomes more aware of himself and embraces his life. Because he remains true to himself, he is ultimately condemned to death. He does not want to die but in his last days in prison he is at peace with himself and regrets nothing (other than that he had not learned more about executions).

Meursault is thus an example of the absurd man described in The Myth of Sisyphus. Almost instinctively, he recognizes that life is meaningless and that religion, love and ambition cannot change that reality. His patron offers him a promotion to work in Paris, but Meursault turns him down. He enjoys and needs his physical relationship with Marie but has no illusions about love or marriage bringing meaning to life. The chaplain in the prison (as well as the investigating judge and his lawyer) tries to bring him to God, but Meursault is unbudgeable in his atheism, nor will he express remorse for his mother’s death or regret for the death of the Arab.

The funeral of his mother is the first event of the book. But he comes back to his memories of her throughout the book until his final moments in prison. While he says that she cried to be put in the elder home (which is a long bus ride from Algiers), in most respects she seems to be the model for her son’s attitudes. He says that she too did not believe in God. She always said that one adapts to everything. (At first, prison was a punishment for him because of his cravings for women, the sea and cigarettes, but ceased to be so when he ceased to have the cravings.) Just like his mother took a fiancé at the end of her life, he also wants to continue to live.

He feels like an intruder at his own trial. He feels he is being tried for being indifferent to his mother. The prosecutor links the murder of the Arab to the burial of his mother. Meursault recognizes that death is inevitable, but it galls him to lose twenty years of life. At the end he does not feel despair but he has fear of death. Opening himself to the “tender indifference” of the world, he realizes he had been and still is happy. His last thought is that he hopes he will have a “grand” execution with many spectators who welcome him with cries of hate. ( )
  drsabs | Feb 26, 2021 |
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Showing 1-25 of 439 (next | show all)
The Stranger is cool and edgy existentialism if you're 15 years old. ( )
  trrpatton | Mar 20, 2024 |
Albert Camus en su cúspide literaria. La indiferencia como estilo de vida. ( )
  franhuer | Mar 19, 2024 |
The Stranger has arguably one of the best commentaries on the subject of amorality. It establishes a clear link between the protagonist and his surroundings while showing a complete sentimental detachment between them, providing a perfect setup for the second half of the book. The seemingly mundane state of affairs described in the first half serves as an incredible contrast to the state described in the second book, and The Stranger relies heavily on this contrast to reflect on the perils of being sociable while being amoral. ( )
  shadabejaz | Mar 18, 2024 |
I wish i could be more like the main character. To think more about myself, the immediate context, the moment. To let go all the complexity you can't control anyway. Reading the slightly detached thoughts of the character feels like flying on a fresh breeze along a sandy shore. ( )
  rubyman | Feb 21, 2024 |
i found the character intros in pt. 1 to be hilarious.

Meursault pretty much only cared about his current mood and direct setting. During pt. 2, he acts in a textbook "external locus of control" demeanor. ( )
  1ucaa | Feb 12, 2024 |
A strange look into the mind of a condemned man.
At first the story of a man who returns home when his mother dies - then his story when he is tried and convicted for shooting a man at the beach. In prison awaiting his death he ponders the meaning of his life mainly concluding it is absurd. ( )
  waldhaus1 | Dec 19, 2023 |
I reread this book so that I could remember what happened before reading The Meursault Investigation, by Daoud. I still don't find this book particularly fantastic. The main character is ok, just a dude who is not particularly emotional and who is matter-of-fact about everything. But he is also really clueless about how people react to him, and he and everyone around him seem to like overreacting to stuff, beyond what I found realistic. The nonchalant way the main character goes about murdering the Arab on the beach was interesting and also the way he just accepts his death sentence the way he's accepted everything else. But I did not find anything much to make me think this book was amazing enough to be on major booklists. ( )
  JBarringer | Dec 15, 2023 |
Meursault's mother has died, so he travels to her funeral at an assisted living facility outside of the city. When he returns home to Algiers continues drifting through life without any real motivation or preferences, until he ends up, for no reason he or anyone else can fathom, fatally shooting a stranger on the beach. He is then put through a rather futile murder trial.

This book has basically the vibes I was expecting, having read Camus before, but not the plot. It's hard to feel much sympathy for the narrator. He seems to genuinely have trouble engaging with the world but he also tacitly endorses animal abuse, domestic abuse, assault, racism, and lying to the police even though we know that he knows they are wrong. Oh, and the part where he shoots a stranger 5 times for no reason! The trial is slightly absurdist, as the prosecutor focuses on Meursault's relationship with his mother instead of his actions, but it's hard to argue he shouldn't be convicted for killing a person without any reason or remorse.

This edition was translated by Stuart Gilbert. The beginning of the book is very short choppy sentences, which led me to feel very removed from the narrator. That certainly could have been purposeful, based on the plot, but there's no translator's note so I'm not sure if it's just a translation quirk.

This book is not one I'm going to revisit, but I do still have a lot of thoughts. ( )
  norabelle414 | Nov 15, 2023 |
I admit part of this is me kneejerking against its reputation, although I genuinely didn't find much that made it worthwhile - it IS kind of interesting, although it's hard to understand the emphasis on "oh he doesn't react properly!" as opposed to him being a murderer and immediately joining in with a stranger's plot to violently assault a woman he's been pimping out. The narrator gives an affect of not caring but the enthusiasm with which he joins in with Raymond's violence is shocking - he refuses to help a long term neighbour find his dog, he refuses to care about his girlfriend's feelings, but a violent, racist pimp? Mersault is WAY up for that.

I suppose the like, deeper moral contrast is with Mersault killing a random Arab man supposedly because "it was hot" and the state killing him because he didn't properly fulfil his role as a French citizen. As someone pretty wholly opposed to the death penalty, there is something there. But it's hard to take the philosophising of Mersault seriously in the context that he did very much kill someone in cold blood, and if he had got away with it it would be because French settler society is horrifically racist.

I think there's a few interesting things to stew on but primarily Mersault is just like so many other racist, violent, misogynist men. I can imagine some of it was innovative at the time but similar ideas since make it seem shallow. There's something to be said for a portrait of an unpleasant man in a racist society but Camus doesn't really want to go into it. Frustrating book whose reputation surprises me. ( )
  tombomp | Oct 31, 2023 |
Fun fact: While I was reading the book, a lot of the behaviours and reasonings of Merault made me think of a person with Aspergers,and after doing some research it turns out that there is evidence that the character was based on Camus' friend who had Aspergers.

In The Stranger, the main character Meursault is a nihilist who believes that life has no meaning. He lives detached from the people around him and does not care about his life, family, or friends. He does not abide by society's rules or expectations. This ultimately seems not to be a choice he makes,but rather a lack of understanding on this part.

We see a transition happen throughout the novel where towards the end, Meursault is no longer indifferent towards the world's indifference. Instead, he embraces it. He realizes that regardless of what people think of him individually, even if they hate him, the human race at large is his companion because every life could turn out every way, and so they are all united even though they happened to turn out this way.

Meurault plays with the idea of human interchangeability. Yet, when he first mentions this idea at the beginning of the book, he does so in an apathetic and indifferent manner. Towards the end however, Meursault describes this passionately, as an ideal of human equality. That is because your life could have turned out any way, but it just happened to turn out this way, and therefore you must treasure it and accept it for what it is.

Aaah There is so much more to this book that I am probably missing. All in all, a powerful narrative that I will undoubtedly revisit in the future ( )
  enlasnubess | Oct 2, 2023 |
This is a book that deserves multiple readings and means different things to readers. I only read it once, and I am not sure if I understand it. But I think I know how the protagonist feels - the dont-want-to-care about things attitude, and doing things in the heat of the moment. Not to the extent of committing murder in the case of Meursault but sometimes, you don't know why you did certain things and you can't explain. ( )
  siok | Aug 27, 2023 |
"Like" doesn't really fit for this title. The work is darkly compelling with a man's whole world view outlined by plain sentence structure and chronological unfolding of ordinary horrifying events related in matter-of-fact first person. ( )
  rebwaring | Aug 14, 2023 |
An old favourite that I finally got round to reading in the original French and while it's faded somewhat for me over the years already as I've grown older and grown away from some of what initially struck a chord with me, I still like it a good deal and had been planning to delve into it from quite early on - surprised it took me this long.

____

A really quick and easy read, I must have been close to the golden 98% comprehension while going through this as 200 pages has certainly never been so rapid for me in French. The simple prose meant just a few unfamiliar turns of phrase and some legal terminology required me to use the Kindle look-up, but otherwise this was quite seamless. ( )
  franderochefort | Aug 9, 2023 |
Is Merseault evil? His behavior and reactions disgust officials of the state, who seem to argue that he's totally lacking in emotion, as evidenced by his failure to weep at his mother's funeral. The central question is whether the reader is supposed to feel this same revulsion. Merseault's girlfriend, Marie, stands by him at the trial, along with his neighbors and acquaintances. But this doesn't change the fact that The Stranger is a world without a moral compass, where a man can abuse his dog and pine for its loss at the same time - similarly to Merseault's feelings about Marie?

I guess the absurdism is that the amoral, godless Merseault is being judged by the morality of a society that Camus sees as being a hollow facade. This novel is provocative for it cynicism about these moral questions. ( )
1 vote jonbrammer | Jul 1, 2023 |
The sitcom "Seinfeld" is famously known as a "show about nothing." Of course the "Seinfeld" episodes are always about something (though often not immediately obvious) and could also be quite dark.
I think Camus might have enjoyed "Seinfeld." ( )
  smithart | Jun 8, 2023 |
How is morality determined? Is it possible to cut 'conscience' and 'love' into a formal framework? ( )
  kyl804 | Jun 4, 2023 |
A quick classic - themes related with those in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. ( )
  alrajul | Jun 1, 2023 |
My thoughts on this book are kinda all over the place. i did not enjoy the first half. i mean i sorta like camus’ writing style, the mundanity and simplicity really emphasize how Normal—im just realizing i have no clue what the main dudes name is—but how normal he is. and then he kills the dude and he still is so normal. idk. he has no thoughts or feelings really, not until his trial and his sentence. now his trial was mildly interesting, and i really enjoyed the part where he’s awaiting death, i honestly think camus could have dragged it out to the moment of the execution for more introspection, because that was the best part. so yeah idk. obviously though its one of those books that isnt really meant to be like the #1 coolest story you’ve ever read the whole time. a lot of classics are like this, where its like “why the fuck am i even reading this” for 3/4ths of the book and the end is like OHHHHH, i annotated a little bit and that helped me pick up the symbolism of marie and the motif of heat so yea ( )
  ftrastism | Jun 1, 2023 |
Straniero del mondo, insensibile e votato a un'oggettività vuota, almeno per chi lo circonda e decide di vivergli accanto e di giudicarlo. Una riflessione sul concetto di responsabilità e sul civile consesso che chiamiamo società. Difficile non parlar bene di un classico, eppure la prima parte scorre ricca e piena, la seconda (dopo l'arresto) più lenta e monotona. Una frase su tutte: «In fondo non c'è idea cui non si finisca per far l'abitudine». ( )
  d.v. | May 16, 2023 |
Strange. Unsettling ( )
  drmom62 | Apr 21, 2023 |
Reading this book in 2022, it’s about a man that we would probably classify as a psychopath or sociopath who murders a native person in the land he’s actively colonizing. His victim was arguably just trying to keep his sister away from harm at the protagonist’s friends hands as well. But this isn’t the “intended” reading of this book.

From a slightly different historical lens, the book is about a man who’s largely “harmless” but doesn’t conform to, or think about things the way everyone else does. The circumstances under which he kills someone are supposed to be extreme and forgivable enough to not be a big deal (I guess…) but it’s his lack of conformity that does him in.

If you’ve read Malcom Gladwell’s “Talking to Strangers”, it’s essentially the same logic that condemned Amanda Knox (except she was actually innocent), but explored more in-depth and played out in fiction.

As for being “absurdist”… maybe for some definition of “absurd”. I was expecting something more like the absurdism of “Don’t look up” (the movie) and its critique on society, but this was a little more… apathetic nihilism in my mind. ( )
  nimishg | Apr 12, 2023 |
when you die, it's a good moment to convince yourself that everything is meaningless, so you won't feel left out ( )
  hk- | Apr 12, 2023 |
What a brilliant book. Simple yet touched so deep in you! Loved it. Now I want to read all his books! ( )
  hongjunz | Feb 20, 2023 |
I'd learned of this book while watching a film whose main character was a respected literature professor. Unfamiliar with the author and knowledge is was deemed a classic, I checked in out from the library. Of the hundreds of books read over the years, of which many are Pulitzer winners this book ranks at the bottom. Books written in a foreign language can be challenging since translations vary. The heart of good stories are well developed characters, engaging plots and in some cases, surprises. Since this book possesses none of this I'm baffled how it's categorized as a classic. ( )
  Jonathan5 | Feb 20, 2023 |
I feel like I have to justify this 3 star review.

I understand what Camus is getting at throughout his novella. It's an intro to existentialism staple. Mersault, the impassive and free-willed main character doomed from the beginning because society does not understand his tenets of living, takes us on his journey of coming to terms with the possibilities of his conciousness. A heightened embodiment of the existential mantra, Meursault skirts between the line of a hilariously personified existential body, to a vague, watered-down shadow of it. Perhaps that was Camus' genius: create a character just relatable enough to see the persecution of such a radical philosophy (you may argue it's not, but I'm not here to go into the finer points of it) and take us unknowingly into his mind to sympathize.

I think my problem lies entirely with me. I'm not a fan of existentialism. I think there's too much meaning in the world and I revel in the supernatural, the love of others, and the pain therein. I can get a hold of the idea of being alone in the universe, and I think that's a pretty swell way to put it, but that'll never lesson my drive to become as attached as I can to others.

Therein lies the rub: I don't identify with this struggle to the extent Camus' explored. I am quite in the fashion of enjoying the emotions of life and I think that made it so I did not enjoy this as much as I should have. It was a fine read, beyond intelligent and creative with how these ideas were presented, but it just wasn't for me. I think that's the problem with philosophical books, it's a hit or a miss when you're dealing with something so heady as an entire fashion of thought and consciousness. I'll probably pick it up again in a few years if I'm being honest, but for now, it's a tentative 3 for me. Where's my sun beaten breakdown with red between my eyes and a mad dash to the 5 star button so I stop feeling so damned outta the loop about this thing? ( )
  Eavans | Feb 17, 2023 |
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Penguin Australia

3 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0141182504, 0241950058, 0141389583

 

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