The Stranger follows the "adventures" of Meaursault, a French-Algerian, as he tries to make his way through the Universe in a life he neither asked for, nor understands, but is doing his best to navigate. The action is muted and secondary to the motivations and thoughts of Meaursault and the revealing of Camus' philosophy.

If you haven't read anything else by Camus, you probably had to read The Stranger in high school. But now may be a good time to give it another chance. The novel falls into three parts, each marked by a death. Straightforward and simple, the novel presents its plot clearly enough, a good foil for the philosophy of the author. Camus said of this book that it portrayed "the nakedness of man when faced with the absurd" and every life is absurd. Meaursault is not what you would expect as the hero of a novel; he is just an everyday guy, perfect for the role, really, since his job is to reveal the author's version of the truths that are universal, not applicable only to a few. As an atheist, he has no preconceptions about his life or the direction it should take and is at the "mercy" of the world.

An Existentialist, Camus is not always a bundle of laughs to read, but always has interesting commentary to make about the world and the importance of accepting who you are and learning to deal with your true strengths and weaknesses. It isn't saying you should be this or that, but saying that you should just be. Don't concentrate on becoming some other person's version of success, because, after all, we're all just going to end up dead anyway. A kind of Existentialist carpe diem message for anyone who has ever felt like a stranger, and that's probably everyone. As Meaursault himself would say, "the truth shall set you free." It is a difficult read in some ways, but it will leave you changed.

This book was great. I had to read it for a French class and was warned that it was quite depressing. I found it depressing in some areas, but Camus has a style of writing that made me want to keep going. Meursault is not the typical hero of a book because of his seeming lack of compassion, but because of that he made the book interesting. This book, as well as La Peste, made me want to read more of Camus' works

I read this book in High School, in my French AP class. Our class was so enthralled by it that we decided to act it out. The fact that Camus could see into the hypocrisy of his generation...a hypocrisy that still surrounds us...it touches. The symbolism that is in every page...every situation. If only Camus could see that this book has even inspired a very popular POP SONG...KILLING AN ARAB by THE CURE.

The only real problem I have with this book was that the American edition has been abridged. Over 150 pages have been cut. As a result much of the portrait of Camus as a philosopher has been deleted. So I would recomend reading the French edition if at all possible

This book provides an interesting portrait of someone whom most would now qualify as one of the more interesting (if not most important) authors of the twentieth century. This book documents his early life (somewhat disappointingly for anyone who has read 'The First Man'-- Camus' own account) through his dallainces with careers and women to his litery triumphs.

This is a well-written and researched book, with the only negative from me that Camus comes out a lot less heroic and a lot more bitter and stereotypically hepcat and existentialist, which was a disappointment for I, who had raised him toward being a god....

A must read for anyone interested in Camus....

If you want camus' angle on his life, read the first man, if you want an outsiders opinion, oliver todd is as good as it gets. Todd is a stickler for detail which is what anyone reading a biography really wants, so it's a must read on my list

this novel is more about a woman's coming of age in world war two south, then just about interracial relationships. her love interest, elias doesnt even come into the story until much later. but the effect he has on her is dramatic, making her realize that love is more than skin deep. the language mr. french uses is beautiful and does justice to the time and place the story is set in...

The beginning and the end of this book are brilliant. The beginning evokes time and place in a manner not unlike A Thousand Acres or a Faulkner novel: you can feel the dust, the heat, the hatred. No one is doing anything wrong, but goddamn no one is doing anything right either. And even though you know the end, you dread it while rushing to get to it. I would like to have known more about Elias, the black soldier who captures Holly's heart. I would like to have known more about the Hill family's reaction after the lovers' attempted escape. (I would liked to have known less about Holly's angst after Billy's death -- we got the point, let's meet Elias.) The issue which Mr. French tackles -- race relations between the sexes -- is so very sensitive, and yet Mr. French does not flinch . But I don't want to dwell so much on the plot, for as in most tragedies, it is predictable. Instead, savor the language and the poetry of the prose, for it is as lovely as the red flower Elias paints on Holly's turtle rock.

This is possibly the best novel I have ever read to date. You can truly lose yourself in this story--Holly is your best friend, your sister, your child and your lover, all at the same time. Albert French's prose is so simple yet so eloquent--it demands to be read slowly, you can imagine the narrator sitting across from you on the veranda with all the time in the world to tell you his story. If you liked this novel then you must read "Billy" and "I Can't Wait on God".

Although an accomplished and thorough book, it sometimes get bogged down in detail. However, it is a very carefully compiled and analytical book. Good selection of pictures and details of others artists in Camus' life. I enjoyed it greatly.

I think I most love this magnificent book because the chilly reception it has received mirrors the deeply ironic incivility the French elite reserved for Camus himself. One can love Camus for his words, his insight, and his passion, but I think I love him most for the fact that he was hated by idiots. It is this theme that runs throughout Lottman's wonderful biography, and it also seems to describe to an extent Lottman's own experience.

For nearly the last quarter of Camus's short life, he lived in disfavor amongst the Paris literati. And for what? Because he, virtually alone amongst French intellectuals, recognized early on the horror that was the true nature of the regime of Joseph Stalin(socialism being virtually an article of faith with the likes of Sartre and others in France at the time).

Lottman himself seems to have had a rather similar experience in his publication of this book. As he points out in his preface to this second edition, a cottage industry has evolved in France and elsewhere in Camus scholarship and criticism. However, though that body of work is deeply indebted to Lottman's research, his preeminent role is rarely acknowledged. I think this is probably because, like Camus, Lottman is an outsider. Neither man was a French native (Camus was an Algerian of mixed French-Spanish descent, Lottman is an American expatriate living in Paris) and neither is an academic by trade (Camus was a newspaper editor, novelist and a man of the theatre, while Lottman is a journalist). Thus, Lottman has seemed at times as unwelcome amongst the French elite as Camus did himself. Again the irony is too much; Lottman has received comparatively little recognition even though he himself is an extremely important cornerstone of current Camus research.

Anyway, this book for whatever reason has received little more attention here in the United States than it has gotten anywhere else, and I think that is a shame. It is a wonderful, readable book. Most importantly, it is non-judgmental and it is very deferential. By that I mean that Lottman nowehere preaches to us how we should understand Camus; as he himself says, the essence of an artist is not in his biography, but in his works. It is long, but has only that level of detail befitting an intellectual biography of this caliber.

For anyone who really wants to understand Camus's literature, a thorough understanding of his life--like Lottman's--is priceless.

De Rocca's memoir of the war in Spain is far less well-known than that of his hussar colleague Jean Marbot but makes for excellent reading (& probably far less given to exaggeration). Greenhill should be thanked for adding this short work to their Napoleonic Library - an affordable addition to any Peninsular collection. De Rocca's description of the insurgency leaves little to the imagination and certainly makes understandable the French failure to conquer the Spanish people. Any student of the Peninsula should pick this up as should those studying counterinsurgency. De Rocca later went on to wed the formidable Madame de Stael in a love match. We're lucky to have such a memoir by an intelligent, thoughtful campaigner. See also Memoirs of Colonel Bugeaud and the thoroughly readable Recollections of Colonel de Gonneville.

It is really rare to find books specially on the peninsular war and the war in Spain from the French side, the books that you find in English are almost always from the English side or Spanish.

This is a great book that you would really enjoy, we can find not only of a brave and compassionate man(not normal in some french hussards), but of an intelligent and objective observer of the military situation that the French Army find in Spain with the noncommon style of war made by Spanish Guerrilla .

We follow for two years a hussar officer in Napoleon's army, De Rocca was sent to Spain in 1808 from Germany where the French found a very different kind of war; here they were fighting not only the disciplined troops of the English under Sir John Moore, and the Spanish army, but also a civilian population desperately fighting to regain their freedom against Napoleon whose brother Joseph ruled Spain as a puppet king. De Rocca gives vivid accounts of military operations such as the march to Madrid and Napoleon's entry into the city and the subsequent battles in which he took part, the pursuit of Sir John Moore's army to Corunna, the battle at Talavera, which took place while he was away from Spain for a few months, and the battles that followed against the English under General Sir Arthur Wellesley, now in command in the Iberian peninsula. He also describes the enormous personal dangers he faced in every Spanish village that the French army entered, where every man, woman and child was intent on their death, yet he still pays tribute to the character of their enemies even when his own life was at risk from them.

You will enjoy this book.

This novel , more like a autobiography is great because in it he tells of certain unforgetable conversations and ideas that his mind has come up with. It just makes me want to read more of his work because now i know how he gets some of his ideas and the process he goes through in creating a grea novel. Although the notes are written in a form that is different then usual , they are great to read. I recomend it.

This book...a rather large one...is wonderful and incredibly special since it is a peek into Camus' thoughts. He wrote everything down, afraid he would not remember his thoughts. This book is especially interesting since it has some powerful sayings in it...if you are searching for a good quote to write an essay about, I recommend this book.

The book deals with the scum of the earth. It shows their courage and "honesty" in the face of the hypocricy in the world. The book is a murder mystery of sorts, set in the ghettos of Cairo, Eygpt in the 50's or so. The insights the author brings to the lives of the lowest of the low is not matched by many other authors in any language.

Like Albert Cossery's other stories, this one puts you inside an inescapably poor and hopeless life -- in the back streets of Cairo, oppressed by apathy and corruption and stagnation. Sounds fun? Yet it is liberating in its way because if offers a weird logic by which people can endure with a kind of dignity, whether that entails voting a DONKEY for mayor, or laughing out loud during a police beating because the lunch bell rings. Take a breath and try Cossery's books..

Albert Cohen's masterpiece is intimidating both for its size and chapter-long sentences. But, please, do not be discouraged. This is one of the most insightful novels I have read. It delves into the bureacratic labyrinth of international institutions, mocks their functionaries, and is a haunting critique of European virtues on the eve of the Second World War. (Particularly funny for those familar with the World Bank, UN, or government anywhere).

But, most importantly, it portrays the relationship between men and women in a profound yet comic way. The book's difficulty is quite worth the struggle, especially when you reach the chapter where Solal seduces his beloved. A chapter that is hard for me to forget, for it shows just how stupid and cruel we are.

This is not for the lazy readers, but if you have any guts, read this one. Its worth the while.

Cohen's stream of consciousness - beautiful- style leaves us no escape from this absolute, uncompromising love. I have read the book many times, and it never fails to overwhelm me...although I should add that I have never been able to read the last 20 pages... Ariane and Solal are the most beautiful lovers since forever, unconcerned by others - it is the history of love from start to, ufortunately, the end..
(By the way, the novel does not take place in France, but Switzerland)

This magnificent opus of Albert Cohen is much more than The story of love. It is the story of the dream of love (not only personal, but also in its abstract form) and its impossible realization. It offers an original view of both male and female human nature in matters of love and life. It also contains some of the funniest chapters describing bourgeois society (Swiss, French, Belgian, German, Jewish - you name it) and its values and prejudices, and diplomatic life. Some may find it exaggerated and longwinded, but others will enjoy every single word, and re-read this book every so often. If you can't read it in the original French, don't miss this opportunity and read the English translation.

I see why this book gets assigned to high school and college kids. Our relatively fancy sapien brain lets us imagine a perfect world of meaning, purpose, and coherence, but young adult life smacks us up against the real world and our own rational, emotional and social limitations. So we get these thoughtful under 40 (Camus was 33 when this was published) writers who often explore a similar set possible reactions: suicide, rejection of an 'absurd' world, black pessimism.

Nonetheless, of all of the examples of this sort of book or story I've read, Camus has written the most puzzling, thought-provoking piece. Read it. Watch your reactions to Meursault in part one, and then in part two, consider if and why they change. Consider if his reasons for what he does or does not do are not in fact similar to ones you've had, even if you do not think yourself so disassociated as he. Consider if his punishment was really so unjust, given his crime and its motivation. Does it matter that the jury's motives were irrelevant? Why? Were they really?

I am not suggesting particular answers, these are the questions that bug me at the moment, having read it. And I LIKE books that leave me thinking long after, thus he gets 4 stars even from somebody who mostly prefers books that do not end hopelessly.

And gee, what would he have written if he had lived longer than 47 years?

The Stranger was the first novel of Camus' labeled "absurd," and it defines Camus for most Americans. The plot is quite simple, with none of the diversions common in popular literature. The main character is not a hero, has no "true" love affair and the pursuit of money and power never enters the story. The Stranger is an honest atheist, waiting for life to happen.

The title l'Etranger, has been poorly translated. The U.S. title, The Stranger, implies that the main character, Meursault, has been viewed as a "strange" or "odd" person for some time. The other possible meaning is that no one knows him. Meursault is a stranger even to those who think they know him. These definitions do not seem adequate. The U.K. title, The Outsider, only serves to confuse readers even more.

Meursault is the archetype of a middle-class man. He works as a clerk, rents an apartment and draws no attention to himself. He is, if anything, very ordinary. Meusault might even be boring. He lacks deep convictions and passion. If he is estranged from any aspect of French society, it is religion--he does not believe in the symbols and the rituals of faith.

Estranged? "Cela m'est égal."

Along with the title, Camus took care in naming the main character. Meursault's name is symbolic of the Mediteranean sea. Mer mean "sea" and soliel is French for "sun." The sea and the sun meet at the beach, where Meursault's defining actions occur.

Meusault is an anti-hero. His only redeeming quality is his honesty, no matter how absurd. In existential terms, he is "authentic" to himself. Meusault does not believe in God, but he cannot lie because he is true to himself. This inability to falsify empathy ultimately condemns him. Meursault has faith only in what he, himself, can see or experience with his other senses. He is not a philosopher, a theologian or a deep thinker. Meursault exists as he is, not trying to be anything more or less than himself.

Why did Camus' readers recognize Meursault as a plausible character? After two World Wars and much suffering, many people came to live life much as Meursault does. Or at least they tried to do so. These people lost the will to do more than exist. There was no hope and no desire. The only goal for many people was simple survival. Even then, the survival seemed empty and hollow. We learn how empty Meursault's existence is through his relationships. He is not close to his mother; we learn he does not cry at her funeral. He does not seem close to his lover, Marie Cardona. Of her, Meursault states, "To me, she was only Marie." There is no passion is Meursault's words or in his life.

What sets Camus apart from many existentialists and modern philosophers in general is his acceptance of contradiction. Yes, Camus wrote, life is absurd and death renders life meaningless--for the individual. But mankind and its societies are larger than any one individual person.

In a beautiful blend of contrasting elements and brilliant integration of circular symbolism, Albert Camus paints a picture of life and human nature in his existentialist novel The Stranger. This story is that of an impassive man who is convicted of a capital crime because of his indifference on trial and elsewhere in the novel. Meursault, the man whose major crime is his inability to express, murders a man on a beach. Feeling uncomfortable and oppressed by a blinding sun that "shatter[s] into little pieces on the sand and water" into his eyes, Meursault accidentally pulls the trigger of his readied gun, killing the man brandishing a knife at him. The striking feature of this novel lies in Camus' ease in completely incorporating the major motif of the novel: circularity. Circular symbols permeate its every aspect. This circle technique allows the book to comment on life, paradoxically conveying its message through an examination of death. Sun and water themes circulate around each other and are accented by the circular structure of the book itself. These themes also serve to emphasize the motif of contrasting elements that makes this book so complete in its integration. A simple writing style serves to illustrate the simplicity of the novels concept. Working similarly to Hemmingway's style, Camus writes in an extremely fluent way, which also suggests the symbolism of water. This book is one of the best out their. With an interesting plot line and amazing ability, it succeeds in most ways to explain one of life's truths.

It's been written about "A Happy Death" that Camus' unpublished first novel was brilliantly written, and terrible organized. It's hard to deny that the novel may have some structure problems, but it's hard to care when it's written so beautifully. Philosophically, it hints at topics Camus would explore later (exile, suicide, rebellion and of course, the absurd). Even young Camus had a way with words, and although like the existentialist of his time he had a way of telling dark and depressing tales, he manages to write with an emphasis on the simple pleasures of life. Whether he's describing the act of bathing in the sun or savoring food items he has a way of making the reader want to live and experience life, for better or worse, to the fullest. "A Happy Death", in a literary sense, doesn't even come close to the heights of The Stranger (with which it bares many similarities) or The Plague (my personal favorite) but one really can't complain about a novel capable of reaffirming how beautiful (yet absurd) life can be.

Camus, the master wordsmith, stunningly leads us on one man's inescapable journey towards death. Along the way he realises how inconsequntial material things are in the battle between life and death. Highlights: Beautiful accounts of the hero's last vestigages of strength being drained from his body while swimming in the North African Mediterranean; the startling description of a man in the throes of death. Read it!

This book is concentrating on the subject of which is the right way to live your life so your death would be worth it. I think it is completely stunning, like every other book from Camus so read it now, it will change YOUR life for sure!