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Product Description
Product Description
Meursault leads an apparently unremarkable bachelor life in Algiers until he commits a random act of violence. His lack of emotion and failure to show remorse only serve to increase his guilt in the eyes of the law, and challenges the fundamental values of society - a set of rules so binding that any person breaking them is condemned as 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 (1942), 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.
About the Author
Albert Camus 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. He 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.
Translated by Joseph Laredo
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First Sentence
Mother died today. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Mother died today. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
54 of 56 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of the very few books that I have ended up reading twice, I first came across The Outsider long ago in 1962 when I was 17 and have just revisited it recently with my reading group, extremely curious to know whether the strong impression it originally made upon me would be rekindled.
In the main, it was not. Coming to this novel in adolescence as one of the first `serious' books I had encountered, and just before the social upheavals of the 1960s began, I found the story and fate of Mersault, who could not or would not lie or express the standard emotions that were expected of him, quite shattering of the world in which I had grown up. Over the intervening decades, I carried a memory of Mersault as a noble hero and of the type of society that I had grown up in as a hypocritical conspiracy against the expression of honesty of feeling. As much or more than Kerouac, Ginsberg and Dylan, it was this book that made me a small town, coffee bar existentialist.
On re-reading at a different age and in a different era, I was struck by a number of impressions. Mersault appears less heroic and emptier of human warmth. He tacitly supports his neighbour, a pimp, in his violence towards his girlfriend and the novel hints more at his racism in the motiveless murder of an Algerian on the beach, around which the novel revolves. His patterns of thinking seem now far less idealistic and almost autistic in character.
However, the sense of place and especially the evocation of the heat, sun, sea, the streets of the town, the courtroom and his prison cell remain convincing and beautifully expressed in clear, clean prose. Mersault's world view and his in-the-moment limited expectations still engaged me as a study of character, but less as an existential pioneer and martyr and more as an unreflective and mildly hedonistic individual.
I would still strongly recommend this book for its historical importance. Written during the second world war when Camus was fighting in the French Resistance, I first read it in early 1960s when publicly departing from the standard loyalties to school, church and state still felt like a dangerous undertaking. The book will now be judged by first-time readers against the mores of present times, times which have been fashioned by myriad forces including, as an early artistic tour de force, this novel.
My grading is an amalgam of my original and my current impressions - I hope this book continues to provoke and be appreciated.
In the main, it was not. Coming to this novel in adolescence as one of the first `serious' books I had encountered, and just before the social upheavals of the 1960s began, I found the story and fate of Mersault, who could not or would not lie or express the standard emotions that were expected of him, quite shattering of the world in which I had grown up. Over the intervening decades, I carried a memory of Mersault as a noble hero and of the type of society that I had grown up in as a hypocritical conspiracy against the expression of honesty of feeling. As much or more than Kerouac, Ginsberg and Dylan, it was this book that made me a small town, coffee bar existentialist.
On re-reading at a different age and in a different era, I was struck by a number of impressions. Mersault appears less heroic and emptier of human warmth. He tacitly supports his neighbour, a pimp, in his violence towards his girlfriend and the novel hints more at his racism in the motiveless murder of an Algerian on the beach, around which the novel revolves. His patterns of thinking seem now far less idealistic and almost autistic in character.
However, the sense of place and especially the evocation of the heat, sun, sea, the streets of the town, the courtroom and his prison cell remain convincing and beautifully expressed in clear, clean prose. Mersault's world view and his in-the-moment limited expectations still engaged me as a study of character, but less as an existential pioneer and martyr and more as an unreflective and mildly hedonistic individual.
I would still strongly recommend this book for its historical importance. Written during the second world war when Camus was fighting in the French Resistance, I first read it in early 1960s when publicly departing from the standard loyalties to school, church and state still felt like a dangerous undertaking. The book will now be judged by first-time readers against the mores of present times, times which have been fashioned by myriad forces including, as an early artistic tour de force, this novel.
My grading is an amalgam of my original and my current impressions - I hope this book continues to provoke and be appreciated.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I love this book. I first read it when I was about twenty, and was blown away. At a time when I was wrestling with my own feelings, the idea that someone could be honest about his lack of emotions was staggering. On re-reading it years later, I find it flawed (is Mersault really being consistent?) but still brilliant.
However, I have a problem with this edition. The premise is that Mersault is a perfectly acceptable, sociable, young man about town. He just happens not to love his mother very much and is honest enough not to lie about it - this is why it is such a challenging book. However, someone at Penguin has chosen to publish it with a cover illustration of a drooling psychopath, which is utterly at odds with the text, and will give readers completely the wrong preconceptions. Hadn't they read the book?
However, I have a problem with this edition. The premise is that Mersault is a perfectly acceptable, sociable, young man about town. He just happens not to love his mother very much and is honest enough not to lie about it - this is why it is such a challenging book. However, someone at Penguin has chosen to publish it with a cover illustration of a drooling psychopath, which is utterly at odds with the text, and will give readers completely the wrong preconceptions. Hadn't they read the book?
41 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The Outsider" is probably the most wonderful book that Algerian genius Albert Camus ever wrote, drawing in theories from "The Rebel" and "The Myth of Sisyphus" as well as existentialist ideas from the likes of Sartre into a blistering indictment of human society.
Meursault, a bachelor, living in Algiers, leads a completely unremarkable life until he finds himself committing an act of violence. A man who is incapable of lying, in any sense of the word, his response challenges all of the absurd values which society holds to be fundamental. Meursault's responses to the law, religion and society shake at the very heart of what traditionalists hold to be morally correct.
Incredibly readable, no book will change your way of thinking quite like this one. It says so much for Camus' incredible skill as a prose reader that the book manages to strike the reader so much in such a short and digestable length. Joseph Laredo's translation is superb, this book is fantastic - buy it and read it, over and over again.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Non Team Player
Today was the first proper day of summer and the streets were full of beautiful young people making their presences felt. Read more
Published 7 days ago by demola
Modern Classic
I read this when I was fifteen - a life changing moment. Existentialism, angst, death - it's all there in a heady brew. Fantastic.
Published 2 months ago by Dojo
If you like this read Scut by Anthony Healy
The Outsider is great, mostly because Camus is a great stylist. However, I can live without the philosophical diatribe to the court at the end of the book. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Phil Burstall
Beautiful and haunting but left me with more questions than answers
I am writing this review having only completed my first reading of the book. I'm glad it's short because I intend on rereading it in the near future. Read more
Published 8 months ago by aus_books
A weak effort
In this review I am taking this book on its own merits, aside from the many accolades of its writer.
Camus gives us Mersault, a dry average chap in a dry average world. Read more
Camus gives us Mersault, a dry average chap in a dry average world. Read more
Published 11 months ago by P. Griffin
C'est la Vie
Meursault is The Outsider - A man without motive and seemingly detached from the society he lives in who commits a murder and drifts towards his inevitable fate without either... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr. N. P. House
Life on the Outside...
Remember Brando in 'Last Tango in Paris' he runs in, looking at his mother's coffin, and calls her all the names under the sun. Read more
Published 15 months ago by whitedragon
brilliant
its a classic that can be enjoyed by anyone, whether they are studying literature or simply just looking for a good book to read. I highly recommend this book.
Published 15 months ago by Dee
I Couldnt See It
After somebody recommended this book to me i was rather looking forward to reading it.I checked out the other reviews on Amazon and was happy to see so much positive... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mr. D. A. Francis
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