A Happy DeathThe first novel from the Nobel Prize-winning author lays the foundation for The Stranger, telling the story of an Algerian clerk who kills a man in cold blood. In A Happy Death, written when Albert Camus was in his early twenties and retrieved from his private papers following his death in 1960, revealed himself to an extent that he never would in his later fiction. For if A Happy Death is the study of a rule-bound being shattering the fetters of his existence, it is also a remarkably candid portrait of its author as a young man. As the novel follows the protagonist, Patrice Mersault, to his victim's house -- and then, fleeing, in a journey that takes him through stages of exile, hedonism, privation, and death -it gives us a glimpse into the imagination of one of the great writers of the twentieth century. For here is the young Camus himself, in love with the sea and sun, enraptured by women yet disdainful of romantic love, and already formulating the philosophy of action and moral responsibility that would make him central to the thought of our time. Translated from the French by Richard Howard |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accordion Albert Camus Algeria Algiers asked awakened beautiful Bernard Bingues body bouillabaisse breath café Caligula Camus Camus's Cardona Catherine Celeste central Europe Chapter Charles Bridge Chenoua chest cigarette closed dancehall dark door downstairs Eliane Emmanuel everything eyes face feel filled fragrance Genoa gestures girls hair hand Happy Death harbor heart kind laugh light line 21 lips listened lived looked lucid Lucienne Lucienne's man's manuscript pages Marthe Marthe's Mersault felt Mersault walked morning Myth of Sisyphus night Notebooks novel olive trees opened Patrice Mersault Perez Prague rain realized restaurant Rose and Claire sault says secret seemed sexual jealousy shoulder silence sketches sleep smell smiled solitude star stood Stranger street streetcars suddenly swelled tears thing throbbing Tipasa took turned typescript wanted warm warmth watched window woman Zagreus