The Stranger (Vintage International) by Albert Camus (MOBI)

Description

With the intrigue of a psychological thriller, The Stranger—Camus’s masterpiece—gives us the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach. With an Introduction by Peter Dunwoodie; translated by Matthew Ward.Behind the subterfuge, Camus explores what he termed “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd” and describes the condition of reckless alienation and spiritual exhaustion that characterized so much of twentieth-century life. “The Stranger is a strikingly modern text and Matthew Ward’s translation will enable readers to appreciate why Camus’s stoical anti-hero and ­devious narrator remains one of the key expressions of a postwar Western malaise, and one of the cleverest exponents of a literature of ambiguity.” –from the Introduction by Peter DunwoodieFirst published in 1946; now in translation by Matthew Ward.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Albert Camus, winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in Algeria to French parents when the North African nation was ruled as a colony of France. Algeria also serves as the setting for his 1942 novel The Stranger. Its protagonist, Meursault, was born in France and has settled in North Africa with his mother. In his adopted homeland, Meursault lives as a Frenchman and only associates with other European settlers. This makes him “L’Étranger”—the French title of the work, which can be translated as the “foreigner,” “The Outsider” (the book’s British title) or “The Stranger” (its American title). Only a few Arab citizens of Algeria appear in the book, and they remain unnamed, referred to only as “the Arab,” thus emphasizing Meursault’s (and France’s) detachment from his colonial home.Meursault’s indifference, however, is not directed at any particular race or demographic, but rather at the world and life in general, making him somewhat of a stranger to humanity. Under almost all circumstances, he demonstrates himself peculiarly incapable of feeling empathy or emotion, whether anger, fear, or love. Meursault narrates the novel in a detached, deadpan style that almost mocks everything that happens in the plot. He relates his dramatic saga of crime and punishment, love and sex, life and death in short, choppy sentences of bareboned syntax as if he were mentioning the most mundane of occurrences. This linguistic style is aptly evocative of Meursault’s apathetic attitude towards life and the world around him.Likewise, the universe itself treats Meursault with harsh indifference. As if driven towards an inevitable fate by random variables beyond his control, he commits a crime almost unthinkingly. The circumstances of the crime exhibit some characteristics of self-defense and some of premeditation, leaving the outcome of his trial uncertain. During the actual court proceedings, however, Meursault finds that he is not being tried for what he has done but rather for who he is. The judge, jury, and courtroom crowd judges him for the very unfeeling personality that characterizes his nature. The details of his life are scrutinized as evidence of his otherness, his indifference to the way people are supposed to be, his status as a stranger among normal humans who dutifully love their mothers and worship God. Despite this negative turn of events, Meursault greets this persecution with his characteristic lack of concern, because life really doesn’t matter anyway.Camus manages to convey all this in a tone that’s relentlessly bleak but with touches of absurd humor. Though Meursault’s narration remains dispassionate for most of the book, the plot does culminate in a climactic outburst, through which Meursault’s (and presumably Camus’s) philosophy of the absurdity and meaninglessness of existence is revealed with harsh and brutal frankness. Even so, this outlook of pointlessness is oddly liberating. The Stranger is one of the twentieth century’s most thought-provoking works of philosophical fiction. It certainly is no “feel-good” book, however, and it makes for a reading experience that’s obviously not to everyone’s taste. If you just don’t “get” The Stranger, then chances are you’re a rather happy, optimistic, and well-adjusted person. Congratulations!

⭐Monsieur Meursault is a French-Algerian: his mother (Maman) has just died and he attends her funeral. That event is the axis about which the story turns – not so much the physical attendance or even the external events of the funeral, but rather Meursault’s psychological reaction to her death. The reader is left to deduce their own ‘connections’ between the death of Maman and the events that follow – which will ultimately lead Meursault to the guillotine.The story is full of metaphor and discovery: the sun and light and heat bristle throughout the pages of the story. “She said, ‘If you go slowly, you risk getting a sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church.’ She was right. There was no way out”The book is short (125 pages) and written in the short sentence, staccato style of writers like Hemingway. The read is easy but the meanings are deeper than the words on the page. By the end the effect is a story told in the detail of two or three times the pages that Albert Camus uses. It is clever and thought provoking and well worth the read!(Matthew Ward translation)

⭐At 57, this is my first reading of Camus. I’m sure a lot of ink has been spilt in analysis by others more knowledgeable than myself. My impression is that The Stranger is the story of a man whose life is like the proverbial leaf floating down the stream, the current taking him wherever it will, the man having no power to resist and it wouldn’t matter if he did. I am aware that Camus is said to be an existentialist, and the story pretty much sums up the philosophy. The only time, strangely, that the protagonist becomes passionate is when a priest challenges his worldview. So, evidently in spite of himself, some things matter after all. I can only agree with Chesterton on the absurdity of such indifference : “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

⭐An enigma that unfolds as a thriller as it unfolds the hero’s final moments that, in the end, unfolds the reader’s personal philosophies.The book left me with so many unanswered questions, questions that — when it really mattered — became irrelevant as the final pages of the book revealed his final moments. And I think that is one of the most wonderful achievements of this great book: In the end, does any of it really matter?

⭐First about the condition of the book.. It was perfect with no damage. This book is an absurdist book written by Albert Camus. He was a well known absrurdist writer .The genre absurd comes from the Theatre of the Absurd.. It mainly concentrates on how humans for no reason do things. They don’t know for what purpose they are doing it but they do because they are told to. It also pays attention to how humans are afraid of certain things but they don’t know what exactly they are afraid of.These books do not have any legit plot, climax etc. It is written to provoke certain questions in the minds of the readers. But that doesn’t mean that the book is boring… It is very intriguing and thought provoking.

⭐Poor translation, for award winning book and price was not worth it at all

⭐Incredible writer.. I could picture the scene, it is deep, dark and the writing is stunning. I will remember this book much longer yet.

⭐This book is brilliant. The translation into English does not make it any less French. (Read it and you will understand what I mean!)The language is descriptive and wonderful and the story is wonderful. This book was a top purchase.

⭐Possibly one of the best books I’ve ever read

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