By: Albert Camus Publisher: Vintage Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Vintage Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 144 Publication Date: March 13, 1989 Release Date: March 13, 1989
Amazon.com: The Stranger is not merely one of the most widely read novels of the 20th century, but one of the books likely to outlive it. Written in 1946, Camus's compelling and troubling tale of a disaffected, apparently amoral young man has earned a durable popularity (and remains a staple of U.S. high school literature courses) in part because it reveals so vividly the anxieties of its time. Alienation, the fear of anonymity, spiritual doubt--all could have been given a purely modern inflection in the hands of a lesser talent than Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957 and was noted for his existentialist aesthetic. The remarkable trick of The Stranger, however, is that it's not mired in period philosophy.
The plot is simple. A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. The trial's proceedings are absurd, a parsing of incidental trivialities--that Meursault, for instance, seemed unmoved by his own mother's death and then attended a comic movie the evening after her funeral are two ostensibly damning facts--so that the eventual sentence the jury issues is both ridiculous and inevitable.
Meursault remains a cipher nearly to the story's end--dispassionate, clinical, disengaged from his own emotions. "She wanted to know if I loved her," he says of his girlfriend. "I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't." There's a latent ominousness in such observations, a sense that devotion is nothing more than self-delusion. It's undoubtedly true that Meursault exhibits an extreme of resignation; however, his confrontation with "the gentle indifference of the world" remains as compelling as it was when Camus first recounted it. --Ben Guterson
Product Description: Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." First published in 1946; now in a new translation by Matthew Ward.
Remarkable Imagery The story based around the deaths of Meursalt's mother, a distant acquaintance of his, and his execution is ludicrous, yet the mindsets of the characters are strikingly real and fitting considering the situations that they are faced with.
The plot is just plain ridiculous. Meursalt, the protagonist, subsequent to partaking in his mother's funeral, kills a man because the sun gets in his eyes and he blunders, clicking the trigger, and then letting the barrel pop four more times.
After spending months in jail awaiting a trial, the magistrate tells Meursalt that he can be forgiven for his crime, with the help of God. Meanwhile, the presiding judge believes that Meursalt has no soul. Therein lies the theme of the novel: are Meursalt's qualities attributed to an underdeveloped way of thinking and expressing himself, or do his actions speak for themselves, proving that he is all but inhuman, a man, or even a spectacle, with no soul? What makes this argument so compelling is that it is easy to identify with Meursalt, but his actions take on a role of their own. He is seemingly indifferent to just about everything, with exception to being imprisoned. But even that he gets used to. His carelessness may be due to subconscious depression. Is he hiding his true feelings? There's plenty of evidence to argue this point..
When Meursalt visits his mother's funeral home, he falls asleep in an abnormal position, possibly so that he doesn't have to deal with his thoughts of his loss. When he arrives at the home, he notices minute details of all of the old men and women there, including those of the caretaker, the funeral home manager, and Mr. Perez. He distracts himself from thinking about his mother. He clearly has feelings for her, however, because later in the novel, when he's in trial, he can't help but be infuriated at himself for not crying on the day of the burial. When Meursalt shoots the Arab five times, he envisions knocking on the door of unhappiness with each hit. Is he doing himself in because deep down he thinks he deserves it? Is his crude indifference towards the world mistaken for his open mind and lack of understanding of others, and of himself?
On the other hand, Meursalt may be merciless and hard headed. He doesn't know how old his mother was when she died, or exactly when she died, and he is under the impression that being at her funeral is a bother, because he could be doing other things, and later he admits that he deserves to be killed.
Meursalt's relationship with his girlfriend, Marie is essential in this novel. Whether Meursalt has a soul or not is debatable, but his admiration for Marie is not. He uses love as a distraction from his worries, and the pairing of the couple is perfect fit. Marie appears to be as open minded as Meursalt, and while Meursalt voices that he doesn't seem to care about much of anything, which might be perceived as an immature viewpoint, Marie demonstrates the same notion through her innocent laughs. But neither Meursalt nor Marie are really innocent. Marie wants to be with Meursalt in bed, and, like Meursalt, doesn't seem to have much else on her mind. Meanwhile, Meursalt writes a letter for his friend threatening his friend's girlfriend, and later he hears them fight without intervening. Yet, in a way, the two still are innocent until they face Meursault's prison sentence and execution.
Meursalt is a criminal, whether or not it was his intention, but he has feelings, just like everyone else. And his thought process makes more sense after his prison sentence than anywhere else in the novel. The reality of his emotions, during the time he spends in lock up, jump out of the page. I don't believe this work would have earned Albert Camus the Nobel Prize without the detail in the final pages. Suddenly, Meursalt sees the world in a different light. He had taken his life for granted when he was a free man, wasting time watching passer-bys in the street from his porch, keeping anything important from lingering on his mind. And now the only thing he can think about is his anticipitated death, the most important thing in his life. Why hadn't he learned more about the guillotine? he wondered. Why didn't he read books on escaping prison? Impetuously, Meursalt began thinking, but it was too late. Even without knowing his fate, Meursalt could have imagined potential decision based outcomes, such as going through with marrying Marie. But he had decided not to think, because he didn't have to. He didn't think when he committed murder. He didn't even have the ability to think about why he did it. Was Meursalt gutless and cold hearted or did his thoughtlessness become a danger to himself? The moments leading up to his execution represented a new life for him, as he finally began to think about his previous actions and the tolls they took on himself and everyone who he knew, all of whom testified in court. He was finally able to see the light, but it was too late. Even while seated in the courtroom, where there was no way to see the sun, Meursalt was able to sense what time of day it was by the sounds outside. The sun had haunted Meursalt throughout the book. Everywhere he went, he was too hot. As he killed the Arab, he was attempting to get out of the sun. But the light is exactly what he needed. And that's the irony of the novel.
This is not a novel to read for its story. The plot has little significance in the beauty of "The Stranger." In fact, if someone explained every detail of the book before you read it, they wouldn't be giving much away. It's the style of Camus's writing, even after surviving a translation, that captures the mind of his readers. "The Stranger" is a must read masterpiece of literature.
It all depends on what you want from the book... I have read this book at least four different times ever since I was 15 -for the record, I am 34 as I write this review. When I read it the first time, I just wanted people to think I was smart since I was reading Camus. Time went by, and I found myself reading this book again and coming to the conclusion that it is neither really about the murder (that became a song from the Cure later on, if nobody has written that yet), nor the stranger, nor his trial. The book can be interpreted as an allegory to the European presence in Africa. If your heart is socialist enough, you can interpret it as an allegory of the European arrogant presence everywhere in the World.
In my view, it is not his best work (I like The Fall much better) but it is a must, no questions asked.
Undeniably interesting... Camus was well known for defending values of justice, freedom and human dignity, I don't think his great work "the stranger" was a negative portrayal of human life in any way. The stranger is simply Camus' way of presenting his philosophy of absurdity in a very artistic, logical way.
Camus's absurdist philosophy implies that life has no rational meaning, and there isn't a rational reason for the order of events in this world, therefore existence itself is absurd, which of course would contradict all religious beliefs that there is a divine reason for everything that happens and that life itself is divine. However, Camus in pursuit of his absurdist philosophy never believed that the absence of meaning in our lives should push humans into despair and agony, rather he believed in humans dignity under the pressure of this indifferent world.
The stranger, or the main character of the novel: Meursault, who lived in Algiers, (Algiers was a French colony, Albert Camus was born there) is an emotionally indifferent person, who moves through life reacting to no event, even his mother's death. Meursault doesn't believe in God and doesn't have any emotional attachment to anything or anybody. Meursault on the other hand is an honest person who doesn't lie about his feelings and tells it as he sees it; he's simply a person with no hidden agendas and no mysterious motives.
Meursault's life exists as a series of random events with seemingly no logic to why or when the event occur, not even his marriage decision or the support that he gives to certain friends seem logical. For no clear motive or reason, Meursault commits a murder and is taken to prison. The trial that takes place in the second part of the book is the most intense and mentally engaging part of Camus' stranger.
The main focus of the trial shifts radically from the murder to an analysis of Meursault's character: his atheism, his lack of emotions at his mom's funeral, his brief interactions with people he met at his mom's funeral and even his conversation with the priest who came to prison to redeem Meursault and ask him to take Jesus as his savior. The court is trying to find the reason behind this irrational crime, just like society and religion are trying to find reason behind irrational events of life.
Meursault is sentenced to death and pressured again by the priest to choose religion before he dies. At this point, Meursault, who was never emotional about any thing in his life, becomes very emotional about his rejection of religion and accepts death as the only destiny awaiting all humans. Getting rid of all hope, and accepting death was the only conclusion that allowed Meursault his inner peace.
At a time of intense intellectual confusion after the second world war, Camus is not to be blamed for thinking that existence was absurd, at a time where lives are being lost for no reason and religion was being misused all over the world for political ,controlling, and non spiritual reasons. If the reader is interested in philosophy, religion, or literature, the stranger is a fascinating journey into the human mind and an exploration of life's purpose.
A precurser to our modern legal and social value scale. Essentially this book is about a man whose alleged crime is merely the excuse used to remove him from society. During the trial of the central character we are told he is guilty of neglect, lacks empathy, and is in a sense socially maladjusted. For this he is executed. Today all we need to do to witness such an injustice is turn on the news to see so many of our fallen members of society judged on their social habits and personal shortcomings in the name of justice and the greater good.
Dispassionately Compelling Like most of Camus' works, The Stranger's plot is simple but the meaning is trivially existentialist and compelling. The Stranger begins with the death of narrator Meursault's mother. After napping on the bus to her retirement home, Meursault is disengaged and unmoved by the vigil and funeral procession, and continues to be until the finale of his trial.
Meursault appears insensitive throughout The Stranger and lives for pleasure in the moment. When asked by ladyfriend Marie if he loves her, he responds nonchalantly, "...it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't." Meursault, however, does have feelings for her, but chooses not to acknowledge them.
When faced with the conflict of killing a man for being a threat to his friend, Meursault's "live in the moment" persona erupts inside of him enough to pull the trigger five times and not panic. Throughout the lengthy period of time Meursault spent in prison, he continued to be indifferent, unmoved, and dispassionate. Though he did not feel like a criminal, he still struggled to come to terms with his disposition.
The end of the novel is disconcertingly troubling. Meursault fights to disengage his feelings from Marie as she sits in the visiting room of the prison, and struggles to choke back words of defense for himself during the trial. He listens to the prosecutor demean his image and is powerless over it. Finally, Meursault feels like a criminal, but convinces himself that he will be spared despite his murderous crime. However, Meursault is sentenced to a public execution and consequently becomes even more dispassionate than he had been. His final thoughts of resignation were impersonal and repugnant, due to the fact that Meursault had become entirely convinced that his world was truly a physical one and he had reached the inevitable end.
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