The Outsider

Albert Camus

Penguin Books, 2000 - Adventure fiction - 118 pages

A peerless work of philosophical fiction that is as shocking today as when it was first published, the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Albert Camus' The Outsider is translated by Joseph Laredo.Meursault will not pretend. After the death of his mother, everyone is shocked when he shows no sadness. And when he commits a random act of violence in Algiers, society is baffled. Why would this seemingly law-abiding bachelor do such a thing? And why does he show no remorse even when it could save his life? His refusal to satisfy the feelings of others only increases his guilt in the eyes of the law. Soon Meursault discovers that he is being tried not simply for his crime, but for his lack of emotion - a reaction that condemns him for being an outsider. For Meursault, this is an insult to his reason and a betrayal of his hopes; for Camus it encapsulates the absurdity of life.In The Outsider (L'Étranger), his classic existentialist novel, Camus explores the predicament of the individual who refuses to pretend and is prepared to face the indifference of the universe, courageously and alone.Albert Camus (1913-1960) is the author of a number of best-selling and highly influential works, all of which are published by Penguin. They include The Fall, The Outsider and The First Man. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, Camus is remembered as one of the few writers to have shaped the intellectual climate of post-war France, but beyond that, his fame has been international.If you enjoyed The Outsider, you might like Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'A compelling, dreamlike fable'Guardian'The story of a beach murder, one of the century's classic novels. Blood and sand' J. G. Ballard, Daily Telegraph

About the author

Albert Camus was born in Algeria in 1913. His childhood was poor, although not unhappy. He studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, and became a journalist as well as organizing the Théâtre de l'équipe, a young avant-garde dramatic group.

His early essays were collected in L'Envers et l'endroit(The Wrong Side and the Right Side) and Noces(Nuptials). He went to Paris, where he worked on the newspaper Paris Soirbefore returning to Algeria. His play, Caligula, appeared in 1939. His first two important books, L'Etranger(The Outsider) and the long essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe(The Myth of Sisyphus), were published when he returned to Paris.

After the occupation of France by the Germans in 1941, Camus became one of the intellectual leaders of the Resistance movement. He edited and contributed to the underground newspaper Combat, which he had helped to found. After the war he devoted himself to writing and established an international reputation with such books as La Peste(The Plague1947), Les Justes(The Just1949) and La Chute(The Fall;1956). During the late 1950s Camus renewed his active interest in the theatre, writing and directing stage adaptations of William Faulkner's Requiem for a Nunand Dostoyevsky's

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Outsider; Volume 139 of Everyman's library; Modern Classics; Penguin Modern Classics Series; Penguin classics; Penguin twentieth-century classics
• Author: Albert Camus
• Translated by: Joseph Laredo
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Penguin Books, 2000
• ISBN: 0141182504, 9780141182506
• Length: 118 pages