| View Larger Image | The Fall | Paperbackby Albert Camus (Author)
| List Price: | $13.00 | | Price: | $9.36 | | You Save: | $3.64 (28%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Vintage | | Page Count: | 160 Pages | | Publication Date: | May 07, 1991 | | Sales Rank: | 13,829th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780679720225
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Elegantly styled, Camus' profoundly disturbing novel of a Parisian lawyer's confessions is a searing study of modern amorality. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 100 reviews)
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welcome to limbo by A. Marouchos (Cambridge)  5 Stars
November 17, 2009
The Fall by Albert Camus is a short book; it can be finished within a couple of days yet the aftertaste it leaves lingers on for much, much longer. The book is essentially a collection of monologues directed from the main protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Clamence - a self-described judge-penitent, towards an unnamed listener who patiently remains on the receiving part throughout. Incisive and painfully honest Clamence reveals a sordid cross-section of his life and thoughts. On a personal level, there were quite a few things that I found uncomfortably familiar as the protagonist's monologue rambles on - and this I believe was Camus' prime intention: although he might've not shared wholeheartedly Clamence's bleak vision of human nature he certainly was intent on challenging the reader's preconceptions of himself.
There is no followed plot per se in this book, no grand finale where our protagonist achieves a realization, a reawakening into the world which would conceivably give a suitable closer to a contrived story. Rather the real protagonist is the reader himself - this is more than a critique on human nature or a self-indulgent autobiographical confession: this is an inexorably pensive soliloquy that should read like a mirror, a reflection of our inner selves. Clamence, much like Dostoyevsky's Underground Man, mockingly strips human life of its fragile veneer and leaves it bare and exposed. He is trapped in an inhospitable universe by the absurd necessity to exist and unforgiving guilt. In this universe, there is no forgiveness for being alive; innocence is irretrievable and any form of religious righteousness a cheap and fabricated façade. Yet Clamence is happy in a sort of depraved manner: the nadir of existence that he has fallen in perversely becomes a summit from which he can judge mankind with impunity - he's already down there at the bottom, what derisions could possibly sink him lower? He wants to live beyond judgment but he realizes that this is impossible and so reconciles authenticity and repentance by surrendering himself to the gaping void - and so he falls.
In this relentless exercise in mordant self-effacement, however, Clamence is really accusing us. His unabashed narcissism is unmasqueraded by the hypocrisy of the common people; his happiness is that of supreme condescension. And it's actually this wretchedness that binds us together - not naïve altruism or the 'common good' but the mere fact that we all have it coming - we're all guilty. "Don't wait for the Last Judgment", he quips, "it takes place every day". Relinquishing our freedom and submitting ourselves to eternal repentance for our fall from Eden is the only path left. I think this was Clamence's (and perhaps even Camus') answer to the Sartrean problem of absolute freedom and the unbearable responsibility that comes with it: there is a master after all, intrinsic and embedded in the human psyche, in this Godless universe to which we can bow our heads to in unison; if only a "provisional" one. Indeed this is for me one of the most insightful novels I've ever read and like all literary Existentialist masterpieces of its ilk it casts a shadow on the soul from which it is difficult if not impossible to escape.
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A pleasure to read by John Scott (Tokyo Japan) 5 Stars
October 14, 2009
Other reviewers have already stated the virtues of this short story. I don't feel the need to defend the novel. I will however add my voice to others and say, yes, it's a pleasure to read. Stimulating and captivating.
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Albert Camus - The Fall by Kerem Gokmen (Pittsburgh, PA USA)  4 Stars
September 08, 2009
Upon completing The Fall, I do wish I was present in Mexico City listening to Jean-Baptiste Clamence's take on life day after day. His stories never got old, those in search for a meaning to the bigger picture might see things a bit clearer after this fascinating read.
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And dive! Headlong, my friends. by D.H. 5 Stars
August 11, 2009
It is seldom that the "I" is captured before the fall, the progression and tumble marked. Rarer still that Camus captured, within the same plunging motion, the belief that transcendence too, may lay in wait at the base. This fever-dream is a must read.
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a book with real intelligence and passion by Leatha E. Tzioumis (Boston, MA) 5 Stars
July 18, 2009
some people who have commented don't seem to get it. forget about plot....camus is commenting on society through jean baptiste. think philosophical ideals not story line. i really love this book for that reason, he speaks with passion, wit, and intelligence. a true resistance fighter, i admire camus greatly.
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