| View Larger Image | The Stranger (Everyman's Library) | Hardcoverby Albert Camus (Author), Matthew Ward (Translator)
| List Price: | $18.00 | | Price: | $12.24 | | You Save: | $5.76 (32%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Everyman's Library | | Page Count: | 160 Pages | | Publication Date: | February 23, 1993 | | Sales Rank: | 13,050th |
|
FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780679420262
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
|
EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Introduction by Peter Dunwoody; Translation by Matthew Ward |
Amazon.com Review
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 |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 541 reviews)
|
Wonderful Story by A. R. Higgins (Queen City, NC)  5 Stars
November 09, 2009
I don't have much to say other than this one of my favorite books. If you are looking for a modern classic and great story telling, pick this up. If you know nothing about Camus, read about The Stranger and about the author after checking this out first.
| |
an existentialist manifesto of sorts by Joshua Busman (Chapel Hill, NC) 5 Stars
October 29, 2009
Camus's landmark investigation into the human psyche explores the nuance of morality and the futility of life. A dark and deeply moving story.
| |
Not very interesting... by W. Aquino  2 Stars
October 27, 2009
The book is very short and very simplistic; I felt that not Camus, but the one who translated it did not do a good job. It is a bit confusing because Meursault starts out as not caring about anything, but then he seems so infatuated with Marie. So it was a bit hard to decide what kind of character Meursault was supposed to be, although it does in a way show us that humans are not logical beings. On the intellectual level this book was not very appealing at all; most of Meursault's experiences were generalized. I have to say that the book only gets interesting in the last 20-30 pages, that is where the action starts to happen. Everything else before that is vague and garbage, it only talks about this guy who does not have feelings, but wait he does have feelings, or maybe he doesn't. If I were you, I would save the time and read another more interesting book.
| |
Philosophical emptiness or hope? by Darrel Brenner  1 Stars
October 22, 2009
While superb writing and great thinking may occur here it is rather bleak in its hope for humankind. Brave and tough sounding Camus fights the cosmic coldness. The atheistic or agnostic tone, and a dependence at the core of this existentialism on a feeble human who must be superhuman in strength in order to survive the chaos of the world is just as much faith as any religion. He and Satre, a Jew, echo Jewish mystics who believe in redeeming the world through redeeming the self, but forget the God component. Jewish mystics believe in fighting the calamity of a world, but one that has purpose in seeming purposelessness, order in apparent chaos, and redemption in a world needing fixing. One refines the self and the world becomes refined. However, this would only occur through the soul powers granted by God and thus Satre robs his own inheritance of its power source, thus bringing home the a priori of any philoshophy - start with the man of reason, not the God of revelation. Does Camus fail? It all depends on your view of life. I have spent over thirty years with this book in my head and find that any thought of the reality as Camus paints it depressing and non-productive. If one wants more existentialism with hope try Viktor Frankl and Logotherapy. For more daring readers I would recommend a comparison with a more richly tapestried and hopeful mystic like Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (Anatomy of the Soul) or the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, or even Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, MD. Taste and you will see it is good.
| |
strange is The Stranger by Vernon (NorthWest U.S.A.) 5 Stars
September 30, 2009
Pretty unique story. Haven't read anything like it thus far. It's written so simply and with ease. The short story builds little by little until your emotions pick up and you notice your inhaling shorter breaths; following along to see what happens next. Part 1 should be read in full without stopping. Same with part 2. It's hard to analyze this without giving away too much info and spoil it. Not that anyone will read this, but just in case.
Religion played a large role in how the effects played out. I think the sentence was harsher because of Meursaults' indifference to christianity. But he didn't need religion. He didn't have to be and act like everyone else. Wouldn't and didn't conform the whole time. Nice. Time played an interesting part through-out I found, but particularly towards the end it stood out as a key to understanding Meursault.
Looking forward to reading this again, because it still seems strange to me. Nice piece of work Mr. Camus.
| |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| Nausea
by Jean-Paul Sartre (Author), Lloyd Alexander (Translator), Richard Howard (Translator)
The classic Existentialist novel, with a newintroduction by renowned poet, translator, and critic Richard Howard.
Winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize for Literature, Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, critic, novelist, and dramatist, holds a position of singular eminence in the world of letters. Among readers and critics familiar with the whole of Sartre's work, it is generally recognized that his earliest novel, La Nausée (first published in 1938), is his finest and most significant. It...
| 
| The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays
by Albert Camus (Author)
| 
| The Fall
by Albert Camus (Author)
Elegantly styled, Camus' profoundly disturbing novel of a Parisian lawyer's confessions is a searing study of modern amorality.
| 
| The Plague
by Albert Camus (Author), Stuart Gilbert (Author)
A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic of twentieth-century literature.
| 
| The Metamorphosis (Bantam Classics)
by Franz Kafka (Author), Stanley Corngold (Translator)
A novel about a man who finds himself transformed into a huge insect, and the effects of this change upon his life.
|
|
|
