Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Albert Camus

 
Who2 Biography: Albert Camus, Writer
Albert Camus
Source

  • Born: 7 November 1913
  • Birthplace: Mondovi, Algeria
  • Died: 4 January 1960 (automobile crash)
  • Best Known As: Nobel-winning author of The Stranger

Albert Camus was one of the most highly-regarded French writers while he was alive, and today his books continue to be bestsellers in France and staples of university courses in Western literature and philosophy. Camus grew up poor in Algeria, where he studied philosophy and got involved in the theater and in journalism. In 1938 he moved to France (his father was French, his mother was Spanish) and kept writing essays and plays, earning a reputation among literary and philosophical circles. He was a member of the French Resistance during World War II and co-edited the left-wing journal Combat until 1948. In 1957 he became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, based on essays such as "Le Mythe de Sisyphe" ("The Myth of Sisyphus," 1942) and novels including L'etranger (The Stranger or The Outsider, 1941), La Peste (The Plague, 1946) and L'Homme Revolte (The Rebel, 1951). Camus wrote about alienation and moral responsibility and is often compared to his one-time colleague, Jean-Paul Sartre (in the late 1940s their relationship ended over Sartre's defense of communism under Stalin). Camus described himself as pessimistic about the human condition, yet he ardently sought a positive solution to the "absurdist" position that life is meaningless. While en route to Paris on January 4, 1960, he and his publisher, Michel Gallimard, were killed in an automobile accident.

In 1995 his daughter, Catherine Camus, published his final (and unfinished) manuscript, The First Man.

Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Albert Camus, photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson.
(click to enlarge)
Albert Camus, photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson. (credit: Henri Cartier-Bresson — Magnum)
(born Nov. 7, 1913, Mondovi, Alg. — died Jan. 4, 1960, near Sens, France) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, and playwright. Born into a working-class family, Camus graduated from the university in Algiers and then worked with a theatrical company, becoming associated with leftist causes. He spent the war years in Paris, and the French Resistance brought him into the circle of Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialism. He became a leading literary figure with his enigmatic first novel, The Stranger (1942), a study of 20th-century alienation, and the philosophical essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1942), an analysis of contemporary nihilism and the concept of the absurd. The Plague (1947), his allegorical second novel, and "The Rebel" (1951), another long essay, developed related issues. Other major works include the short-story collection Exile and the Kingdom (1957) and the posthumous autobiographical novel The First Man (1994). His plays include Le Malentendu (1944) and Caligula (1944). Camus won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. He died in a car accident.

For more information on Albert Camus, visit Britannica.com.

Biography: Albert Camus
Top

The French novelist, essayist, and playwright Albert Camus (1913-1960) was obsessed with the philosophical problems of the meaning of life and of man's search for values in a world without God. His work is distinguished by lucidity, moderation, and tolerance.

Albert Camus may be grouped with two slightly older French writers, André Malraux and Jean Paul Sartre, in marking a break with the traditional bourgeois novel. Like them, he is less interested in psychological analysis than in philosophical problems in his books. Camus developed a conception of the "absurd," which provides the theme for much of his earlier work: the "absurd" is the gulf between, on the one hand, man's desire for a world of happiness, governed by reason, justice, and order, a world which he can understand rationally and, on the other hand, the actual world, which is chaotic and irrational and inflicts suffering and a meaningless death on humanity. The second stage in Camus's thought developed from the first - man should not simply accept the "absurd" universe, but should "revolt" against it. This revolt is not political but in the name of the traditional humane values.

Camus was born on Nov. 7, 1913, at Mondovi in Algeria, then part of France. His father, who was French, was killed at the front in 1914; his mother was of Spanish origin. His childhood was one of poverty, and his education at school and later at the University of Algiers was completed only with help from scholarships. He was a brilliant student of philosophy, and his major outside interests were sports and drama. While still a student, he founded a theater and both directed and acted in plays. Having contracted tuberculosis, which periodically forced him to spend time in a sanatorium, he was medically unable to become a teacher and worked at various jobs before becoming a journalist in 1938. His first published works were L'Envers et l'endroit (1937; The Wrong Side and the Right Side) and Noces (1938; Festivities), books of essays dealing with the meaning of life and its joys, as well as its underlying meaninglessness.

L'Étranger

At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 Camus was unfit for military service; in the following year he moved to Paris and completed his first novel, L'Étranger (The Stranger), published in 1942. The theme of the novel is embodied in the "stranger" of its title, a young clerk called Meursault, who is narrator as well as hero. Meursault is a stranger to all conventional human reactions. The book begins with his lack of grief on his mother's death. He has no ambition, and he is prepared to marry a girl simply because he can see no reason why he should not. The crisis of the novel takes place on a beach when Meursault, involved in a quarrel not of his causing, shoots an Arab; the second part of the novel deals with his trial for murder and his condemnation to death, which he understands as little as why he killed the Arab. Meursault is absolutely honest in describing his feelings, and it is this honesty which makes him a "stranger" in the world and ensures the verdict of guilty. The total situation symbolizes the "absurd" nature of life, and this effect is increased by the deliberately flat and colorless style of the book.

Unable to find work in France during the German occupation, Camus returned to Algeria in 1941 and finished his next book, Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus), also published in 1942. This is a philosophical essay on the nature of the absurd, which is embodied in the mythical figure of Sisyphus, condemned eternally to roll a heavy rock up a mountain, only to have it roll down again. Sisyphus becomes a symbol of mankind and in his constant efforts achieves a certain tragic greatness.

In 1942 Camus, back in France, joined a Resistance group and engaged in underground journalism until the Liberation in 1944, when he became editor of the former Resistance newspaper Combat for 3 years. Also during this period his first two plays were staged: Le Malentendu (Cross-Purpose) in 1944 and Caligula in 1945. Here again the principal theme is the meaninglessness of life and the finality of death. Two more plays, L'État de siège (The State of Siege) and Les Justes (The Just Assassins), followed in 1948 and 1950, and Camus was to adapt seven other plays for the stage, the sphere of activity where he felt happiest.

In 1947 Camus brought out his second novel, La Peste (The Plague). Here, in describing a fictional attack of bubonic plague in the Algerian city of Oran, he again treats the theme of the absurd, represented by the meaningless and totally unmerited suffering and death caused by the plague. But now the theme of revolt is strongly developed. Man cannot accept this suffering passively; and the narrator, Dr. Rieux, explains his ideal of "honesty" - preserving his integrity by struggling as best he can, even if unsuccessfully, against the epidemic. On one level the novel can be taken as a fictional representation of the German occupation of France, but it has a wider appeal as being symbolical of the total fight against evil and suffering, the major moral problem of human experience.

Later Works

Camus's next important book was L'Homme révolté (1951; The Rebel). Another long essay, this work treats the theme of revolt in political, as well as philosophical, terms. Camus, who had briefly been a member of the Communist party in the 1930s, afterward maintained a position of political independence, from both the left and right-wing parties in France. In this book he develops the point that man should not tolerate the absurdity of the world but at the same time makes a careful distinction between revolt and revolution. Revolution, despite its initial ideals, he sees as inevitably ending in a tyranny as great or greater than the one it set out to destroy. Instead, Camus asks for revolt: a more individual protest, in tune with the humane values of tolerance and moderation. Above all he denounces the Marxist belief that "history" will inevitably produce a world revolution and that any action committed in its name will therefore be justified. For Camus, the end can never justify the means. L'Homme révolté was widely discussed in France and led to a bitter quarrel between Camus and Sartre, who at this time was maintaining the necessity of an alliance with the Communists.

In the early 1950s Camus turned back to his earlier passion for the theater and published no major book until 1956, when La Chute (The Fall) appeared. This novel consists of a monologue by a former lawyer named Clamence, who mainly sits in a sordid waterfront bar in Amsterdam and comments ironically on his life. Successful and worldly, he has undergone a moral crisis - the "fall" of the title - after failing to help a young woman who commits suicide by jumping off a bridge in Paris; afterward he gives up his career and moves to Amsterdam, where he lives as what he calls a "judge-penitent." The guilt he feels because of this "fall" makes him see and describe the whole of human life in terms of satirical pessimism.

In 1957 Camus received the great distinction of the Nobel Prize for literature for his works, which "with clear-sighted earnestness illuminate the problems of the human conscience of our time." In the same year he published a collection of short stories, L'Exil et le royaume (Exile and the Kingdom). Later he began to work on a fourth important novel and was also about to become director of a major Paris theater when, on Jan. 4, 1960, he was killed in a car crash near Paris, at the age of 46, a tragic loss to literature since he had yet to write the works of his full maturity as artist and thinker. Since his death important volumes of Carnets (Notebooks) have appeared.

Further Reading

There are a number of valuable studies of Camus's work: Robert de Luppé, Albert Camus (1957; trans. 1966); Thomas Hanna, The Thought and Art of Albert Camus (1958); Germaine Brée, Camus (1959; rev. ed. 1964); John Cruickshank, Albert Camus and the Literature of Revolt (1959); Philip Thody, Albert Camus: 1913-1960 (1961); Adele King, Albert Camus (1964); and Emmett Parker, Albert Camus: The Artist in the Arena (1965). Donald R. Haggis, Albert Camus: La Peste (1962), is a perceptive short study. Germaine Brée edited a volume of extremely useful articles, Camus: A Collection of Critical Essays (1962). Recommended for general critical background are Henri Peyre, French Novelists of Today (1955; new ed. 1967), and John Cruickshank, ed., The Novelist as Philosopher: Studies in French Fiction, 1935-1960 (1962).

Political Dictionary: Albert Camus
Top

(1913-60) Novelist and philosopher, whose work addressed the alienation inherent in modern life, and explored the basis of morality and politics. Born in Algeria to a French father (killed in the First World War) and Spanish mother, Camus attended the University of Algeria, and played regular club football, noting that sport provided ‘my only lessons in ethics’. Camus worked as a journalist, and in 1940 moved to Paris, fighting with the resistance during the Second World War. In Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus: 1942) Camus dealt with ‘the absurd’—the impossibility of the human search for logic and order amidst a chaotic and uncertain world. Escape from the deadening routine of everyday life would lead only to a sense of displacement. This work, and novels such as L'Étranger (The Stranger: 1942) brought Camus close to the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Camus, however, saw the roots of German fascism in the moral and intellectual nihilism of the 1930s, and sought to provide some sort of basis for a political system which would promote justice and liberty. In L'Homme révolté (The Rebel: 1951) he advocated rebellion in order to build a new social system that, instead of trying to replace one misplaced orthodoxy with another, promoted moderation and social justice. Camus combined his belief in the subjectivity of truth and the futility of rational approaches to politics, with a humanitarianism that led to his rejection of violence and extremism. These two elements of his work were never completely reconciled.

— Alistair McMillan

French Literature Companion: Albert Camus
Top

Camus, Albert (1913-60). Novelist, playwright, essayist. Camus was born and raised in a working-class European milieu in Algeria. His early intellectual promise was spotted by Jean Grenier and he went on to pursue studies in philosophy that might have made of him a distinguished academic. However, the onset of tuberculosis at the age of 17 ruled out an academic career, and the disease was to dog him for the rest of his life. His first published writings were lyrical essays inspired by a passion for existence and an intense capacity for communion with nature, coupled with a sharp perception of life's fragility and bleakness. The title of the 1937 collection, L'Envers et l'endroit, highlights this dualistic conception of the human predicament which was to remain a constant throughout his work (see L'Exil et le royaume, 1957).

In the late 1930s he took a succession of menial jobs while developing various interests: political, involving brief membership of the Communist Party; theatrical, through the foundation of two companies for which he adapted, wrote, directed, and acted; journalistic, as a campaigning reporter on the radical newspapers Alger républicain and Soir républicain. He also completed his first novel, La Mort heureuse (published posthumously), and began work on his play Caligula, as well as the novel L'Étranger and the philosophical essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe. When published in 1942, the latter two works established his reputation as the spokesman for a philosophy of the absurd. The essay begins by asking whether suicide is not a legitimate reaction to life's futility and analyses the components of the human condition, concluding that the absurd results from the incompatibility between, on the one hand, the indifferent natural universe and the incomprehensible circumstances of existence, and, on the other hand, man's desire for order and sense. Thus, an authentic response to the human lot requires that the individual maintain the tension between his or her needs and aspirations and the world's refusal to satisfy them. We are like Sisyphus condemned perpetually to push a boulder up a mountain, whence it will inevitably roll back down again: in the endless and ever-defeated effort to surmount this fate, we must, argues Camus, imagine Sisyphus happy and emulate his resilience. Meursault, the anti-hero of L'Étranger, leads a life which can be seen as a manifestation of this vision, and through his terse narrative became an icon for his alienated era.

As these works appeared, Camus had actually moved beyond what to him was only an initial premiss for the individual, and was more concerned with collective attitudes. Trapped in occupied France where he had gone for medical treatment in 1942 just before the Allied landings in North Africa, he worked for the Resistance newspaper Combat while writing La Peste, his allegorical depiction of life under oppression. This novel demonstrates how the tension characterizing the absurd develops into resistance and revolt against a common lot in a movement of solidarity which has implications on the political as well as the metaphysical plane. The clandestine publication of the first of the Lettres à un ami allemand (1943) expressed something of the practical relevance of this theory of revolt which was the next stage in Camus's thought.

At the Liberation of France, Camus, as editor-in-chief of Combat, now a national newspaper, was a major figure in French intellectual life. Through his editorials he informed public opinion on the crucial issues of the day: the post-war purges of collaborators, the establishment of a new constitution and a new political regime in France, the beginnings of the Cold War (see Ni victimes ni bourreaux, 1946). He was linked with Sartre as a leader of radical opinion, but took pains to distance himself from the latter's Existentialism, as his own notion of revolt presupposed moral values Sartre was bound to deny. The publication of La Peste in 1947 was a prelude to a cooling in their hitherto close relations; when L'Homme révolté (1951) was analysed in Sartre's review Les Temps modernes it precipitated a bitter controversy which severed links definitively. In this essay tracing the origins and development of revolt, Camus had been concerned to show that Hegelian historical determinism constituted a perversion of the rebel's true aim and had inevitably opened the way to totalitarianism, both fascist and Marxist.

Moving towards a third stage in his philosophical evolution, Camus was beginning to direct his efforts towards defining an ideal of balance or measure: but in practice this brought him further wounding isolation and estrangement, as he was driven equally to denounce the abuses of Communism and to protest against Western hypocrisy, both in the workings of capitalism and in the failure to support the freedom being snuffed out in Eastern Europe. The mid- and late 1950s were particularly soured for Camus by the Algerian War. Throughout his career he had castigated the injustice inherent in Algeria's political status within France; but his position exposed him to criticism from all sides as, unable to contemplate the transformation of his homeland into a country which was not French, he determined to refrain from public comment for fear of inflaming partisan passions. In 1958 a volume of his journalism, Actuelles III (following previous collections of 1950 and 1953), presented over 20 years' writings on the subject: it was met with virtual silence. His demoralization was exacerbated by personal difficulties and by doubts about his creative powers; but his artistic gifts were triumphantly vindicated in La Chute (1956), which converted his own perceived shortcomings into a mirror sardonically turned on his contemporaries. Though his output as a playwright—Le Malentendu (1944), Caligula (1945), L'État de siège (1948), Les Justes (1949)—failed to match the impact of his other works, in the 1950s he was a much-respected theatre director and produced successful adaptations of other authors. Following the publication in 1957 of his short stories L'Exil et le royaume, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was working on a substantial new novel, Le Premier Homme (published 1994), when killed in a car accident.

[David Walker]

Bibliography

  • J. Cruickshank, Albert Camus and the Literature of Revolt (1959)
  • H. Lottman, Albert Camus (1978)
  • R. Grenier, Albert Camus: soleil et ombre (1987)
Philosophy Dictionary: Albert Camus
Top

Camus, Albert (1913-60) Algerian-born French novelist and thinker, and winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize for literature. His work explores the themes associated with existentialism, in particular the experience of ‘absurdity’ or metaphysical nihilism, and the moral reaction that the experience demands, which come in various combinations of stoicism and rebellion. Camus's novels include L’Étranger (1942, trs. as The Stranger, 1946, and also as The Outsider) and La Peste (1947, trs. as The Plague, 1948). Two major essays explaining the philosophical and metaphysical basis of his themes are Le Mythe de Sisyphe (1942, trs. as The Myth of Sisyphus, 1955) and L'Homme revolté (1951, trs. as The Rebel, 1953).

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Albert Camus
Top
Camus, Albert (älbĕr' kämü'), 1913-60, French writer, b. Algiers. Camus was one of the most important authors and thinkers of the 20th cent. While a student at the Univ. of Algiers, he formed a theater group and adapted, directed, and acted in plays. He became active in social reform and was briefly a member of the Communist party. Shortly after his essay Noces [weddings] appeared (1939), he went to Paris as a journalist. In World War II he joined the French resistance and was principal editor of the underground paper Combat.

Noted for his vigorous, concise, and lucid style, Camus soon gained recognition as a major literary figure. His belief that man's condition is absurd identified him with the existentialists (see existentialism), but he denied allegiance to that group; his works express rather a courageous humanism. The characters in his novels and plays, although keenly aware of the meaninglessness of the human condition, assert their humanity by rebelling against their circumstances.

His essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe (1942, tr. The Myth of Sisyphus, 1955) formulates his theory of the absurd and is the philosophical basis of his novel L'Étranger (1942, tr. The Stranger, 1946) and of his plays Le Malentendu (1944, tr. Cross Purpose, 1948) and Caligula (1944, tr. 1948). The essay L'Homme révolté (1951, tr. The Rebel, 1954), dealing with historical, spiritual, and political rebellion, treats themes found in the novels La Peste (1947, tr. The Plague, 1948) and La Chute (1956, tr. The Fall, 1957). Other works include the plays L'État de siège (1948, tr. State of Siege, 1958); and Les Justes (1950, tr. The Just Assassins, 1958); journalistic essays; and stories. Camus was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature. The first draft of an autobiographical novel, found in a briefcase after his death in a car crash, was published as Le Premier Homme (1994, tr. The First Man, 1995).

Bibliography

See Camus at "Combat": Writing 1944-1947, ed. by J. Levi-Valensi (2007); his Notebooks: 1935-1951, ed. by P. Thody (2 vol., 1963-65, repr. 1998), Notebooks: 1951-1959 (2008); biography by O. Todd (1997); studies by G. Brée (4th ed. 1972), D. Lazere (1973), L. Braun (1974), P. McCarthy (1982), B. L. Knapp, ed. (1988), D. Sprintzen (1988), H. Bloom, ed. (1989, repr. 2003), P. Thody (1989), D. R. Ellison (1990), J. McBride (1992), C. S. Brosman (2001), and M. Longstaffe (2007).

1913 - 1960

French Algerian author.

Albert Camus was born in eastern Algeria at Mondovi near present-day Annaba. His father represented grape-growing and wine-making interests and also served as a Zouave, an Algerian member of a French infantry unit. He died in 1914 from wounds received at the Battle of the Marne in France. His mother was illiterate and of Spanish descent. Camus grew up with her and her extended family in the poor Belcourt neighborhood of Algiers. He received a degree in philosophy from the University of Algiers. During the 1930s, he publicized Kabyle deprivations and briefly joined the Algerian Communist Party. He distinguished himself in the Resistance by editing Combat. He associated with French existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. While his writings have "existentialist" themes, he claimed that he did not subscribe to that philosophy. His novels include The Stranger (1942), The Plague (1947), and The Fall (1957). His most important essays are The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) and The Rebel (1951). He also wrote short stories and plays. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957. During the war of independence, Camus proposed a French - Algerian federation that was rejected by both sides. He died in an automobile accident.

Bibliography

Lottman, Herbert R. Albert Camus: A Biography. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979.

— PHILLIP C. NAYLOR

Quotes By: Albert Camus
Top

Quotes:

"At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face."

"To those who despair of everything reason cannot provide a faith, but only passion, and in this case it must be the same passion that lay at the root of the despair, namely humiliation and hatred."

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life."

"Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is."

"In order to exist just once in the world, it is necessary never again to exist."

"You can't create experience. You must undergo it."

See more famous quotes by Albert Camus

Wikipedia: Albert Camus
Top
Albert Camus

Portrait from New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection
Full name Albert Camus
Born 7 November 1913
Dréan, French Algeria
Died 4 January 1960 (aged 46)
Villeblevin, France
Era 20th century philosophy
Region Western Philosophy
School Absurdism,
Nobel Prize in Literature
1957
Main interests Ethics, Humanity, Justice, Love, Politics
Notable ideas "The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth"
"Always go too far, because that's where you'll find the truth."
"I rebel; therefore we exist."

Albert Camus (French pronunciation: [albɛʁ kamy]) (7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French author, philosopher, and journalist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. He is often cited as a proponent of existentialism (the philosophy that he was associated with during his own lifetime), but Camus himself refused this particular label.[1] Specifically, his views contributed to the rise of the more current philosophy known as absurdism. He wrote in his essay The Rebel that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism while still delving deeply into individual freedom.

In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which (according to the book Albert Camus, une vie by Olivier Todd) was a group opposed to some tendencies of the surrealistic movement of André Breton. Camus was the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature (after Rudyard Kipling) when he became the first Africa-born writer to receive the award, in 1957.[2] He is also the shortest-lived of any literature laureate to date, having died in an automobile accident just over two years after receiving the award.

In an interview in 1945, Camus rejected any ideological associations: "No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked..."[3]

Contents

Early years

Albert Camus was born on 7 November 1913 in Mondovi, Algeria to a (Pied-Noir) settler family.[4] His mother was of Spanish extraction and was half-deaf. His father Lucien, a poor agricultural worker of possible Alsatian origin, died in the Battle of the Marne in 1914 during the First World War, while serving as a member of the Zouave infantry regiment. Camus lived in poor conditions during his childhood in the Belcourt section of Algiers. In 1923, he was accepted into the lycée and eventually to the University of Algiers. However, he contracted tuberculosis in 1930, which put an end to his football activities (he had been a goalkeeper for the university team) and forced him to make his studies a part-time pursuit. He took odd jobs including private tutor, car parts clerk and work for the Meteorological Institute. He completed his licence de philosophie (BA) in 1935; in May 1936, he successfully presented his thesis on Plotinus, Néo-Platonisme et Pensée Chrétienne, for his diplôme d'études supérieures (roughly equivalent to an M.A. thesis).

French literature
By category
French literary history

Medieval
16th century · 17th century
18th century · 19th century
20th century · Contemporary

French writers

Chronological list
Writers by category
Novelists · Playwrights
Poets · Essayists
Short story writers

France portal
Literature portal

Camus joined the French Communist Party in the Spring of 1935 seeing it as a way to "fight inequalities between Europeans and 'natives' in Algeria." He did not suggest he was a Marxist or that he had read Das Kapital, but did write that "[w]e might see communism as a springboard and asceticism that prepares the ground for more spiritual activities".[5] In 1936, the independence-minded Algerian Communist Party (PCA) was founded. Camus joined the activities of the Algerian People's Party (Le Parti du Peuple Algérien), which got him into trouble with his Communist party comrades. As a result, he was denounced as a Trotskyite and expelled from the party in 1937. Camus went on to be associated with the French anarchist movement.

The anarchist Andre Prudhommeaux first introduced him at a meeting in 1948 of the Cercle des Etudiants Anarchistes (Anarchist Student Circle) as a sympathiser who was familiar with anarchist thought. Camus went on to write for anarchist publications such as Le Libertaire, La révolution Proletarienne and Solidaridad Obrera (the organ of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT). Camus also stood with the anarchists when they expressed support for the uprising of 1953 in East Germany. He again stood with the anarchists in 1956, first with the workers’ uprising in Poznan, Poland, and then later in the year with the Hungarian Revolution.

In 1934, he married Simone Hie, a morphine addict, but the marriage ended as a consequence of infidelities on both sides. In 1935, he founded Théâtre du Travail — "Worker's Theatre" — (renamed Théâtre de l'Equipe ("Team's Theatre") in 1937), which survived until 1939. From 1937 to 1939 he wrote for a socialist paper, Alger-Républicain, and his work included an account of the peasants who lived in Kabylie in poor conditions, which apparently cost him his job. From 1939 to 1940, he briefly wrote for a similar paper, Soir-Republicain. He was rejected by the French army because of his tuberculosis.

In 1940, Camus married Francine Faure, a pianist and mathematician. Although he loved Francine, he had argued passionately against the institution of marriage, dismissing it as unnatural. Even after Francine gave birth to twins, Catherine and Jean, on 5 September 1945, he continued to joke wearily to friends that he was not cut out for marriage. Camus conducted numerous affairs, particularly an irregular and eventually public affair with the Spanish-born actress Maria Casares. In the same year Camus began to work for Paris-Soir magazine. In the first stage of World War II, the so-called Phony War stage, Camus was a pacifist. However, he was in Paris to witness how the Wehrmacht took over. On 15 December 1941, Camus witnessed the execution of Gabriel Péri, an event that Camus later said crystallized his revolt against the Germans. Afterwards he moved to Bordeaux alongside the rest of the staff of Paris-Soir. In the same year he finished his first books, The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus. He returned briefly to Oran, Algeria in 1942.

Literary career

During the war Camus joined the French Resistance cell Combat, which published an underground newspaper of the same name. This group worked against the Nazis, and in it Camus assumed the nom de guerre "Beauchard". Camus became the paper's editor in 1943, and when the Allies liberated Paris, Camus reported on the last of the fighting. He was, however, one of the few French editors to publicly express opposition to the use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima soon after the event on 8 August 1945. He eventually resigned from Combat in 1947, when it became a commercial paper. It was then that Camus became acquainted with Jean-Paul Sartre.

After the war, Camus began frequenting the Café de Flore on the Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris with Sartre and others. Camus also toured the United States to lecture about French thinking. Although he leaned left politically, his strong criticisms of Communist doctrine did not win him any friends in the Communist parties and eventually also alienated Sartre.

In 1949 his tuberculosis returned and he lived in seclusion for two years. In 1951 he published The Rebel, a philosophical analysis of rebellion and revolution which made clear his rejection of communism. The book upset many of his colleagues and contemporaries in France and led to the final split with Sartre. The dour reception depressed him and he began instead to translate plays.

Camus' first significant contribution to philosophy was his idea of the absurd, the result of our desire for clarity and meaning within a world and condition that offers neither, which he explained in The Myth of Sisyphus and incorporated into many of his other works, such as The Stranger and The Plague. Despite the split from his "study partner," Sartre, some still argue that Camus falls into the existentialist camp. However, he rejected that label himself in his essay Enigma and elsewhere (see: The Lyrical and Critical Essays of Albert Camus). The current confusion may still arise, as many recent applications of existentialism have much in common with many of Camus' practical ideas (see: Resistance, Rebellion, and Death). However, the personal understanding he had of the world (e.g. "a benign indifference", in The Stranger), and every vision he had for its progress (e.g. vanquishing the "adolescent furies" of history and society, in The Rebel) undoubtedly set him apart.

In the 1950s Camus devoted his efforts to human rights. In 1952 he resigned from his work for UNESCO when the UN accepted Spain as a member under the leadership of General Franco. In 1953 he criticized Soviet methods to crush a workers' strike in East Berlin. In 1956 he protested against similar methods in Poland (protests in Poznań) and the Soviet repression of the Hungarian revolution in October.

The monument to Camus built in the small town of Villeblevin, France where he died in an automobile accident on 4 January 1960

He maintained his pacifism and resistance to capital punishment anywhere in the world. One of his most significant contributions to the movement against capital punishment was an essay collaboration with Arthur Koestler, the writer, intellectual and founder of the League Against Capital Punishment.

The bronze plaque on the monument to Camus, built in the small town of Villeblevin, France. The plaque reads: "From the Yonne area's local council, in tribute to the writer Albert Camus who was watched over in the Villeblevin town hall in the night of 4 January – 5 January 1960."

When the Algerian War began in 1954 it presented a moral dilemma for Camus. He identified with pied-noirs, and defended the French government on the grounds that the revolt in Algeria was really an integral part of the 'new Arab imperialism' led by Egypt and an 'anti-Western' offensive orchestrated by Russia to 'encircle Europe' and 'isolate the United States'.[6] Although favouring greater Algerian autonomy or even federation, though not full-scale independence, he believed that the pied-noirs and Arabs could co-exist. During the war he advocated civil truce that would spare the civilians, which was rejected by both sides who regarded it as foolish. Behind the scenes, he began to work for imprisoned Algerians who faced the death penalty.

From 1955 to 1956 Camus wrote for L'Express. In 1957 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times" not for his novel The Fall, published the previous year, but for his writings against capital punishment in the essay Réflexions sur la Guillotine. When he spoke to students at the University of Stockholm, he defended his apparent inactivity in the Algerian question and stated that he was worried about what might happen to his mother, who still lived in Algeria. This led to further ostracism by French left-wing intellectuals.

Revolutionary Union Movement and the European Union

As he wrote in L'Homme révolté (in the chapter about "The Thought on Midday") he was a follower of the ancient Greek 'Solar Tradition' (la pensée solaire). So, not only was he the leader of the French resistance movement "Combat," but he also set up in 1947-8 the Revolutionary Union Movement (Groupes de liaison internationale - GLI)[5] which was formed in 1949 and can be described as a trade union movement in the context of revolutionary syndicalism (Syndicalisme révolutionnaire). For more, see the book : Alfred Rosmer et le mouvement révolutionnaire internationale by Christian Gras).

His colleagues were Nicolas Lazarévitch, Louis Mercier, Roger Lapeyre, Paul Chauvet, Auguste Largentier, Jean de Boë (see the article: "Nicolas Lazarévitch, Itinéraire d'un syndicaliste révolutionnaire" by Sylvain Boulouque in the review Communisme, n° 61, 2000). His main aim was to express the positive side of surrealism and existentialism, rejecting the negativity and the nihilism of André Breton and Jean-Paul Sartre.

From 1943, Albert Camus had correspondence with Altiero Spinelli who founded the European Federalist Movement in Milan—see Ventotene Manifesto and the book "Unire l'Europa, superare gli stati", Altiero Spinelli nel Partito d'Azione del Nord Italia e in Francia dal 1944 al 1945-annexed a letter by Altiero Spinelli to Albert Camus.

In 1944 Camus founded the "French Committee for the European Federation" (Comité Français pour la Féderation Européene -CFFE) declaring that Europe "can only evolve along the path of economic progress, democracy and peace if the nation states become a federation".

From 22-25 March 1945, the first conference of the European Federalist Movement was organised in Paris with the participation of Albert Camus, George Orwell, Emmanuel Mounier, Lewis Mumford, André Philip, Daniel Mayer, François Bondy and Altiero Spinelli (see the book "The Biography of Europe" by Pan Drakopoulos). This specific branch of the European Federalist Movement disintegrated in 1957 after the domination of Winston Churchill's ideas about the European integration.

Camus and Orwell

Three essays by Dr. Miho Takashima in the International Journal of Humanities explore the relation between the work of the French writer Albert Camus and the English writer George Orwell: "Revolt and Equilibrium: A Comparative Study of Nineteen Eighty-Four and L'Homme Révolté, the Views and Struggles of Orwell and Camus", "Art and Representation: A Comparative Study of George Orwell and Albert Camus on their Literary Works", and "George Orwell and Albert Camus: A Comparative Study – Their Views and Dilemmas in the Politics of the 1930s and 40s".

Takashima argues that Orwell — perhaps intentionally, in order to warn the intellectual elite — compromised with "Big Brother", while Camus confronted with The Plague. This is observed not only in the comparison between Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Rebel but, especially, in Camus' play The State of Siege.[citation needed] This theatrical play was written together with the novel The Plague and the essay The Rebel. It is the work which — according to Camus himself[citation needed] — represents him best and is a response to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. The hero, Diego, opposes the totalitarian dictator named Plague, and dies in order to set a Spanish town free from the Inquisition.

The State of Siege is a work against totalitarianism, written in the same epoch when Camus' contemporary, George Orwell, wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. The play includes an allegorical reference to the end of Orwell's novel.

The original title of The State of Siege was The Holy Inquisition in Cadix.[citation needed] In the French edition of the book, Camus has included an essay under the title "Why Spain?". In this polemical text, he answers his Catholic friend Gabriel Marcel who criticized him for setting the plot in Spain. Here Camus expresses his opposition to the totalitarian regimes of the West, and to the behavior of the Vatican and the Pope during World War II. The most important phrase of this essay is "Why Guernica, Gabriel Marcel?".

Death

Camus died on 4 January 1960 in a car accident near Sens, in a place named "Le Grand Fossard" in the small town of Villeblevin. In his coat pocket lay an unused train ticket. It is possible that he had planned to travel by train, but decided to go by car instead.[7]

Albert Camus' gravestone

The driver of the Facel Vega car, Michel Gallimard — his publisher and close friend — was also killed in the accident.[8] Camus was buried in the Lourmarin Cemetery, Lourmarin, Vaucluse, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.

He was survived by his twin children, Catherine and Jean, who hold the copyrights to his work.

Two of Camus' works were published posthumously. The first, entitled A Happy Death published in 1970, featured a character named Meursault, as in The Stranger, but there is some debate as to the relationship between the two stories. The second posthumous publication was an unfinished novel, The First Man, that Camus was writing before he died. The novel was an autobiographical work about his childhood in Algeria and was published in 1995.

Summary of Absurdism

Many writers have written on the Absurd, each with his or her own interpretation of what the Absurd actually is and their own ideas on the importance of the Absurd. For example, Sartre recognizes the absurdity of individual experience, while Kierkegaard explains that the absurdity of certain religious truths prevent us from reaching God rationally. Camus was not the originator of Absurdism and regretted the continued reference to him as a philosopher of the absurd. He shows less and less interest in the Absurd shortly after publishing Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus). To distinguish Camus' ideas of the Absurd from those of other philosophers, people sometimes refer to the Paradox of the Absurd, when referring to Camus' Absurd.

His early thoughts on the Absurd appeared in his first collection of essays, L'Envers et l'endroit (The Two Sides Of The Coin) in 1937. Absurd themes appeared with more sophistication in his second collection of essays, Noces (Nuptials), in 1938. In these essays Camus does not offer a philosophical account of the Absurd, or even a definition; rather he reflects on the experience of the Absurd. In 1942 he published the story of a man living an Absurd life as L'Étranger (The Stranger), and in the same year released Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus), a literary essay on the Absurd. He had also written a play about a Roman Emperor, Caligula, pursuing an Absurd logic. However, the play was not performed until 1945. The turning point in Camus' attitude to the Absurd occurs in a collection of four letters to an anonymous German friend, written between July 1943 and July 1944. The first was published in the Revue Libre in 1943, the second in the Cahiers de Libération in 1944, and the third in the newspaper Libertés, in 1945. All four letters have been published as Lettres à un ami allemand (Letters to a German Friend) in 1945, and have appeared in the collection Resistance, Rebellion, and Death.

Camus' ideas on the Absurd

In his essays Camus presented the reader with dualisms: happiness and sadness, dark and light, life and death, etc. His aim was to emphasize the fact that happiness is fleeting and that the human condition is one of mortality. He did this not to be morbid, but to reflect a greater appreciation for life and happiness. In Le Mythe, this dualism becomes a paradox: We value our lives and existence so greatly, but at the same time we know we will eventually die, and ultimately our endeavours are meaningless. While we can live with a dualism (I can accept periods of unhappiness, because I know I will also experience happiness to come), we cannot live with the paradox (I think my life is of great importance, but I also think it is meaningless). In Le Mythe, Camus was interested in how we experience the Absurd and how we live with it. Our life must have meaning for us to value it. If we accept that life has no meaning and therefore no value, should we kill ourselves?

Meursault, the Absurdist hero of L'Étranger, has killed a man and is scheduled to be executed. Caligula ends up admitting his Absurd logic was wrong and is killed by an assassination he has deliberately brought about. However, while Camus possibly suggests that Caligula's Absurd reasoning is wrong, the play's anti-hero does get the last word, as the author similarly exalts Meursault's final moments.

Camus' understanding of the Absurd promotes public debate; his various offerings entice us to think about the Absurd and offer our own contribution. Concepts such as cooperation, joint effort and solidarity are of key importance to Camus.

Camus made a significant contribution to a viewpoint of the Absurd, and always rejected nihilism as a valid response.

"If nothing had any meaning, you would be right. But there is something that still has a meaning." Second Letter to a German Friend, December 1943.

What still had meaning for Camus is that despite humans being subjects in an indifferent and "absurd" universe, in which meaning is challenged by the fact that we all die, meaning can be created, however provisionally and unstably, by our own decisions and interpretations.

Opposition to totalitarianism

Throughout his life, Camus spoke out against and actively opposed totalitarianism in its many forms.[9] Early on, Camus was active within the French Resistance to the German occupation of France during World War II, even directing the famous Resistance journal, Combat. On the French collaboration with Nazi occupiers he wrote:

Now the only moral value is courage, which is useful here for judging the puppets and chatterboxes who pretend to speak in the name of the people [10]

Camus' well-known falling out with Sartre is linked to this opposition to totalitarianism. Camus detected a reflexive totalitarianism in the mass politics espoused by Sartre in the name of radical Marxism. This was apparent in his work L'Homme Révolté (The Rebel) which not only was an assault on the Soviet police state, but also questioned the very nature of mass revolutionary politics. Camus continued to speak out against the atrocities of the Soviet Union, a sentiment captured in his 1957 speech, The Blood of the Hungarians, commemorating the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, an uprising crushed in a bloody assault by the Red Army.

Camus and solidarity

Solidarity in The Stranger

In The Stranger, Albert Camus characterizes his justification of the absurd through the experiences of a protagonist who simply does not conform to the system. His inherent honesty disturbs the status quo; Meursault's inability to lie cannot seamlessly integrate him within society and in turn threatens the simple fabrics of human mannerisms expected of a structurally ordered society. Consequently, the punishment for his crime is not decided on the basis of murder, but rather for the startling indifference toward his mother's recent death. Even after a conflicting spiritual discussion with a pastor inciting Meursault to consider a possible path towards redemption, the latter still refuses to take upon salvation and symbolizes his ultimatum by embracing the "gentle indifference of the world"; an act which only furthers his solidarity with a society incapable of realizing his seemingly inhumane and misanthropic behavior.

Solidarity in The Plague

The plague is an undeniable part of life. As posited in The Plague, it is omnipresent, just like death was always an impeding factor in The Stranger. Albert Camus once again questions the meaning of the moral concepts justifying humanity and human suffering within a religious framework. For Camus, the rationale behind Christian doctrine is useless; as mortal beings, we cannot successfully rationalize the impending and inescapable death sentence forced upon every human. The plague, which befalls Oran, is a concrete and tangible facilitator of death. Ultimately, the plague enables people to understand that their individual suffering is meaningless. As the epidemic "evolves" within the seasons, so do the citizens of Oran, who instead of willfully giving up to a disease they have no control over, decide to fight against their impending death, thus unwillingly creating optimism in the midst of hopelessness. This is where Camus channels his thoughts behind the importance of solidarity: although the plague is still primarily an agent of death, it provides the uncanny opportunity for people to realize that individual suffering is absurd. In the midst of complete suffering, the challenging response adopted by the majority of the citizens of Oran demonstrates an inexplicable humanistic connection between distraught and distant characters. Only by making the choice to fight an irreversible epidemic are people able to create the ever-lacking meaning to a life destined for execution the moment of its creation.

Camus and football

Camus was once asked by his friend Charles Poncet which he preferred, football or the theatre. Camus is said to have replied, "Football, without hesitation."[11]

Camus played as goalkeeper for Racing Universitaire Algerois (RUA won both the North African Champions Cup and the North African Cup twice each in the 1930s) junior team from 1928–30.[12] The sense of team spirit, fraternity, and common purpose appealed to Camus enormously.[13] In match reports Camus would often attract positive comment for playing with passion and courage. Any aspirations in football disappeared at age 17, upon contracting tuberculosis—then incurable, Camus was bedridden for long and painful periods.

When Camus was asked in the 1950s by an alumni sports magazine for a few words regarding his time with the RUA, his response included the following:

After many years during which I saw many things, what I know most surely about morality and the duty of man I owe to sport and learned it in the RUA. [11]

Camus was referring to a sort of simplistic morality he wrote about in his early essays, the principle of sticking up for your friends, of valuing bravery and fair-play. Camus' belief was that political and religious authorities try to confuse us with over-complicated moral systems to make things appear more complex than they really are, potentially to serve their own needs.

Bibliography

Novels

  • The Stranger (L'Étranger, often translated as The Outsider) (1942)
  • The Plague (La Peste) (1947)
  • The Fall (La Chute) (1956)
  • A Happy Death (La Mort heureuse) (written 1936-1938, published posthumously 1971)
  • The First Man (Le premier homme) (incomplete, published posthumously 1995)

Short stories

Non-fiction

  • Betwixt and Between (L'envers et l'endroit, also translated as The Wrong Side and the Right Side) (Collection, 1937)
  • Nuptials (Noces) (1938)
  • The Myth of Sisyphus (Le Mythe de Sisyphe) (1942)
  • The Rebel (L'Homme révolté) (1951)
  • Notebooks 1935-1942 (Carnets, mai 1935 — fevrier 1942) (1962)
  • Notebooks 1943-1951 (1965)
  • Notebooks 1951-1959 (2008) Published as "Carnets Tome III : Mars 1951-December 1959" (1989)

Essays

  • Create Dangerously (Essay on Realism and Artistic Creation) (1957)
  • The Ancient Greek Tragedy (Parnassos lecture in Greece) (1956)
  • The Crisis of Man (Lecture at Columbia University) (1946)
  • Why Spain? (Essay for the theatrical play L' Etat de Siege) (1948)
  • Reflections on the Guillotine (Réflexions sur la guillotine) (Extended essay, 1957)
  • Neither Victims Nor Executioners (Combat) (1946)

Plays

Collections

  • Resistance, Rebellion, and Death (1961) - a collection of essays selected by the author.
  • Lyrical and Critical Essays (1970)
  • Youthful Writings (1976)
  • Between Hell and Reason: Essays from the Resistance Newspaper "Combat", 1944-1947 (1991)
  • Camus at "Combat": Writing 1944-1947 (2005)

Cultural influences

Film

Several of Camus' works have been adapted into movies. The Stranger has been adapted into an Italian 1967 movie by Luchino Visconti, and also to a 2001 Turkish adaptation titled Yazgi (Fate) by Zeki Demirkubuz. The Plague was adapted to a 1992 film titled La Peste by Luis Puenzo and set in modern day America.

Music

Quite a few musical artists refer to Camus and his work in their music. The post-punk band The Fall took their name from Camus' novel The Fall. These also include an album by Jeff Martin (Exile and the Kingdom, 2006) and songs by Gentle Giant ("A Cry for Everyone", 1972), The Cure ("Killing an Arab", 1978), Tuxedomoon ("The Stranger", 1979), Digable Planets ("Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)", 1993) The Magnetic Fields ("I Don't Want To Get Over You", 1999), The Manic Street Preachers ("The Masses Against The Classes", 2000), JJ72 ("Algeria", 2000), Suede ("Obsessions", 2002), Streetlight Manifesto ("Here's To Life", 2003), A Perfect Circle ("A Stranger" and "The Outsider", 2003), Angela McCluskey ("Know it All", 2004), Joanna Newsom ("This Side of the Blue", 2004), Tarkio ("Neapolitan Bridesmaid", 2006), The Independence, ("20-Ought-Almost-Talkin' Blues", 2008), Drought ("To the Benign Indifference of the Universe", 2008), Titus Andronicus ("No Future Part Two: The Day After No Future" and "Albert Camus", 2008)

Anti-folk singer-songwriter Jeffrey Lewis references Camus, as well as Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg, in a 2005 song, "Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror" in the line, "And I'm sure the thing is probably Dylan himself too, stayed up some nights wishing he was as good as Ginsberg or Camus".

References

  1. ^ Solomon, Robert C. (2001). From Rationalism to Existentialism: The Existentialists and Their Nineteenth Century Backgrounds. Rowman and Littlefield. p. 245. ISBN 074251241X. 
  2. ^ Lennon, Peter (1997-10-15), Camus and his women, Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/1997/oct/15/biography.albertcamus, retrieved 2008-12-01 
  3. ^ Les Nouvelles litteraires, 15 November 1945
  4. ^ "Albert Camus — Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/91464/Albert-Camus. Retrieved 2009-10-17. 
  5. ^ a b Todd, O Albert Camus: A Life, p37, 250, Alfred A. Knopf, 1998; Carroll & Graf, 2000.
  6. ^ Actuelles III: Chroniques Algeriennes, 1939–58
  7. ^ "KIAD MA in Fine Art: a student run seminar". Raimes.com. http://www.raimes.com/seminar.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-17. 
  8. ^ de Gaudemar, Antoine (1994-04-16), 'This one's had a good start born in the middle of a move.', Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/1994/apr/16/fiction.albertcamus, retrieved 2008-12-21 
  9. ^ "Interview with Catherine Camus". Spikemagazine.com. 1999-02-22. http://www.spikemagazine.com/0397camu.php. Retrieved 2009-10-17. 
  10. ^ "In Camus' notebooks and letters, as quoted in ''Albert Camus A Life'' By Olivier Todd". 64.233.183.104. http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:becLSqP2AvMJ:query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html%3Fres%3D9806EED9113FF93AA25751C1A961958260%26sec%3D%26spon%3D%26pagewanted%3Dall+Now+the+only+moral+value+is+courage,+which+is+useful+here+for+judging+the+puppets+and+chatterboxes&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk. Retrieved 2009-10-17. 
  11. ^ a b "Albert Camus and football". Camus-society.com. http://www.camus-society.com/camus-football.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-17. 
  12. ^ "General : Yan!! Camus". RedHotPawn.com. http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=2803. Retrieved 2009-10-17. 
  13. ^ "Ashley Lattal'S Paper: Albert Camus". Users.muohio.edu. http://www.users.muohio.edu/shermalw/honors_2001_fall/honors_papers_2000/lattal.html. Retrieved 2009-10-17. 

Further reading

  • Camus (1959), by Germaine Brée (ISBN 1-122-01570-4)
  • Camus (1966), by Adele King (ISBN 0-050-01423-4)
  • Camus: vida e obra (1970), by Vicente de Paulo Barretto.
  • Albert Camus: A Biography (1997), by Herbert R. Lottman (ISBN 3-927258-06-7)
  • Albert Camus and the Minister (2000), by Howard E. Mumma (ISBN 1-55725-246-7)
  • Albert Camus, The Artist in the Arena (1965), by Emmett Parker (OCLC 342770)
  • Albert Camus, A Study of His Work (1957), by Philip Malcolm Waller Thody (OCLC 342101)
  • Albert Camus: A Life (2000), by Olivier Todd (ISBN 0-7867-0739-9)
  • Albert Camus: Kunst und Moral, by Heiner Wittmann (ISBN 3-631-39525-6)
  • Sartre and Camus in Aesthetics. The Challenge of Freedom.(2009), by Heiner Wittmann, Ed. by Dirk Hoeges. Dialoghi/Dialogues. Literatur und Kultur Italiens und Frankreichs, vol. 13, Frankfurt/M. ISBN 978-3-631-58693-8
  • Ethics and Creativity in the Political thought of Simone Weil and Albert Camus 2004, by Dr. John Randolph LeBlanc (ISBN 978-0-7734-6567-1)
  • The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir (1954) Winner of the 1954 Goncourt Prize; Camus himself states that he is "the hero" of the book in his Notebooks 1951-1959.

External links



 
 

 

Copyrights:

Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Albert Camus biography from Who2.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Political Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Philosophy Dictionary. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Copyright © 1994, 1996, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Quotes By. Copyright © 2008 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Albert Camus" Read more