Albert Camus

[Carol Baynes]

Although often thought of as an existentialist writer, Albert Camus' writing feels far less linked to one 'movement'. I'm currently reading one of his famous novels, "The Outsider", one of a trilogy of books I've obtained from this Algerian writer- the other two being "The stranger" and "The plague".
I probablly have a far more positive view on life in general, but Camus' words do strike a chord. Where he writes about life it can often seem cruel and pointless, but there is often some positive message or observation made along the way.

Any opinions on his work?

[Captain Tancredi]

Carol, have you bought 'The Stranger' and 'The Outsider' separately? The only reason I ask is that you might have bought two translations of the same book- the French title is 'L'Etranger', which can variously be translated as "stranger", "foreigner" or "outsider". I read it in a single evening in French during my A-level years; the popular account of it in a nutshell is that it's an analysis of a motiveless act, but the bit which has stuck with me is the description of death by firing squad.

'La Peste' was one of my A-level set texts- from what I remember, it's a more complex novel, but because we were doing it in the original French we didn't go that deeply into the themes- the plague as an allegory for fascism, etc. It's interesting that Camus has been posthumously claimed by Algeria and as the first African writer to win the Nobel Prize, however- during the Second World War he was active in the French Resistance and seems to have flitted between France and Algeria for much of his life, so I'm not sure how much that affected his sense of identity.

[Jonno]

I was just thinking what Ian has written about L'Etranger and its multiple meanings, but I don't need to explain it now! I too "studied" it for A-Level French, but I never read much of it - only what we read together in lessons! I was much the same with all my French and Spanish Lit - I loved languages, but wasn't interested in the literature side of things.

I do remember it as being somewhat depressing, and I still remember to this day the very first sentence of the novel - "Hier, ma maman est morte". Yesterday, my Mum died. Lovely!