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The stories of Exile and the Kingdom explore the dilemma of being an outsider - even in one's own country - and of allegiance. With intense power and lyricism, Camus evokes beautiful but harsh landscapes, whether the shimmering deserts of his native Algeria or the wild, mysterious jungles of Brazil.
Here a Frenchwoman is gradually seduced by the sheer difference of North Africa, a mutilated renegade is driven mad by the cruelty of his own people, and a barrel-maker watches the slow decline of his craft. A kindly teacher must choose between the law and a life, while a modest painter is out of his depth in the hypocrisy of the art world, and a French engineer discovers a new sense of belonging in a distant land.
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Four of these stories are set on the shimmering desert fringes of Camus's native Algeria, and all of them first appeared in 1957, the year when he became the youngest French writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
"I would call his pessimism 'solar',if you remember how much black there is in the sun" --Jean-Paul Sartre
"In France, the three vital writers are André Malraux, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Of these, the greatest is Camus" --Arthur Koestler
"Powerful, jolting, thought-provoking parables, told skilfully and with detached passion" --Sunday Times
"These violent yet controlled stories confirm ... that Camus is no simple, superficial humanitarian. He is on the side of the angels, as he should be, but he gives the devil a very good run for his money" --Observer
For more titles in the Penguin Classics range, visit Amazon.co.uk's Penguin Classics Bookstore. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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A fly circled feebly for a moment toward the raised windows of the bus. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
A fly circled feebly for a moment toward the raised windows of the bus. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Exile and Kingdom is the chrysalis out of which The Fall (his great 3rd novel) formed.The stories depict various forms of exile,isolation,alienation.Four are set in Algeria,one of which "The Guest" gets most directly to Camus's present situation and dilemma: how do you treat the Arabs if you are a French Algerian?Daru is a teacher and is asked to keep an Arab prisoner in his house,one who killed his brother,then take him to the nearest town.There is a sense of the native Arab population on the move,in revolt,ready to rise up against their colonist masters.The story is unsettling in light of Camus's treatment by fellow French intellectuals like Sartre and his position as a pied-noir in Algeria.Camus refused to take sides in the conflict.Daru like Camus is exiled by the choices he has made. Daru does not turn in the prisoner,he sets him on his way to make his own choice,freedom or imprisonment.This kindness may result in death.The village was beginning to stir.This is my favorite story.
The Adulterous Woman is disenchanted with her husband on a business trip through Algeria,she still feels attractive to other men,but the vigor has gone out of their marriage.She communes with the night stars,identifies with the nomads she can see from the fort as they aren't tied to the town.She is no longer an extension of her husband,she is freed to embrace the wider world.The native Algerians are disdained by Marcel,her husband.In The Renegade the exiled ex-priest narrator is waiting in the desert,a prisoner of a desert tribe,who have cut out his tongue,having become converted to the dionysiac religion of his masters. The narrator had been a missionary to the tribes of Taghasa,he now waits to kill the new missionary. He disowns Christ, refusing to believe in his righteousness and declares that the Fetish and the power of hatred are the only true and flawless powers in the world.Camus depicts religion as the disjointed absurdity of a disordered mind.
The Silent Men is about a labour dispute in a Cooper's shop in the Algeria of Camus's youth. They have recently returned to work after a failed strike. When the owner's daughter has a serious, acute illness requiring an ambulance, the men do not offer any words of condolence. Where once there had been a sense of being all part of a whole, they no longer feel such for the owner who refused them.The next story is about the successful artist,Jonas, who ceases to be able to paint.The tone reflects Camus's bitterness and sense of isolation at the time of the quarrel with Sartre and his circle.In his new solitude Camus would never show more solidarity, giving way to the French equation/ pun solitaire-solidaire,the only word(s) written on a blank canvas by Jonas.The last story,The Growing Stone,is set on a Brazilian coastal town.A visiting French engineer,D'Arrast,finds a sort of mystical communion with the remote people.Many of the scenes in Exile and Kingdom have a dream-like quality.The `Kingdom' in these stories is one of fantasy.The exile is real and from it stems the fantasy of the kingdom.In the stories solidarity pitches up against solitude.The stories are not easy reads,you feel Camus is trying to work on themes in miniature,but they fascinate anyone who has read his more well known novels and essays.
The Adulterous Woman is disenchanted with her husband on a business trip through Algeria,she still feels attractive to other men,but the vigor has gone out of their marriage.She communes with the night stars,identifies with the nomads she can see from the fort as they aren't tied to the town.She is no longer an extension of her husband,she is freed to embrace the wider world.The native Algerians are disdained by Marcel,her husband.In The Renegade the exiled ex-priest narrator is waiting in the desert,a prisoner of a desert tribe,who have cut out his tongue,having become converted to the dionysiac religion of his masters. The narrator had been a missionary to the tribes of Taghasa,he now waits to kill the new missionary. He disowns Christ, refusing to believe in his righteousness and declares that the Fetish and the power of hatred are the only true and flawless powers in the world.Camus depicts religion as the disjointed absurdity of a disordered mind.
The Silent Men is about a labour dispute in a Cooper's shop in the Algeria of Camus's youth. They have recently returned to work after a failed strike. When the owner's daughter has a serious, acute illness requiring an ambulance, the men do not offer any words of condolence. Where once there had been a sense of being all part of a whole, they no longer feel such for the owner who refused them.The next story is about the successful artist,Jonas, who ceases to be able to paint.The tone reflects Camus's bitterness and sense of isolation at the time of the quarrel with Sartre and his circle.In his new solitude Camus would never show more solidarity, giving way to the French equation/ pun solitaire-solidaire,the only word(s) written on a blank canvas by Jonas.The last story,The Growing Stone,is set on a Brazilian coastal town.A visiting French engineer,D'Arrast,finds a sort of mystical communion with the remote people.Many of the scenes in Exile and Kingdom have a dream-like quality.The `Kingdom' in these stories is one of fantasy.The exile is real and from it stems the fantasy of the kingdom.In the stories solidarity pitches up against solitude.The stories are not easy reads,you feel Camus is trying to work on themes in miniature,but they fascinate anyone who has read his more well known novels and essays.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This collection of six short stories explores the issues of alienation experienced by people who find themselves outsiders in social environments where their social and emotional ties are complex, particularly those involving colonialism. Camus was uniquely qualified to consider such situations, because of his colonial background and because of his stunning command of vivid imagery. The stories cover a wide geographical span, from France to Brazil, and many different aspects of the alienation process. The writing is achingly vivid and alive, and the book shows a much broader view of an author who is widely acknowledged as a master, but mostly for his `bigger' novels.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is probably my favourite book of all time. Five wonderful stories, sad and thought provoking. Not an easy read but in my opinion very life affirming.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Handful Of Salt.
'Exile And The Kingdom' contains 6 short stories which I'm not sure is Camus's oeuvre as only 'The Renegade' really stands out although Camus does communicate the intensity of the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Duluoz Lautrec
A series of short stories which epitomise Camus' work.
This book would serve as a useful introduction to the world of Albert Camus and existentialism. The stories are generally set in Camus' native Algeria and deal with his usual... Read more
Published on 8 April 2001 by jaustin97@hotmail.com
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