By Albert Camus
Its brilliance is its complicated simplicity.
Albert Camus published, The Stranger in French in 1942. The first English publication was 1946. I read and listened the translation by Matthew Ward, noted for the way he "unlocks the prose" of the original French for an English-speaking audience.
Camus, influenced by the drab political milieu of his time (rising Fascist leadership in Germany, Italy, and Spain), completed the writing of The Stranger under German occupation of France. It is the story of a somewhat drab Algerian named, Meursault. Meursault is a plain man living an aimless life of routine (work, girlfriend, cigarettes). We discover that he treats life with indifference, whether it is his mother's death, his girlfriend's (Marie) love, or God's existence. As the introduction supplied with my book notes,
If Meursault strikes observers as indifferent and amoral, it is not because he is a detached, unemotional outsider, but because he is living and responding within a radically different scheme of values, one in which the past (regret) and the future (hope) are meaningless. Meursault is the embodiment of an alternative system which undermines the very basis of the judgment/condemnation to which he is subjected. (xxii)
As we walk with Meursault through his pedestrian life, we watch him kill a man in a moment of confusion. Through his imprisonment, trial, and sentencing, Meursault considers how one finds meaning in life. Shortly after a heated confrontation with the prison chaplain Meursault says:
He seemed so certain about everything, didn’t he? And yet none of his certainties was worth one hair of a woman’s head.… Whereas it looked as if I was the one who'd come up empty-handed. But I was sure about me, about everything, surer than he could ever be, sure of my life and sure of the death I had waiting for me. Yes, that was all I had. But at least I had as much of a hold on it as it had on me. I had been right, I was still right, I was always right. I had lived my life one way and I could just of well have lived it another.
Camus' existentialism shines throughout the book, but particularly the latter portion.
My edition from The Everyman's Library provided a helpful introduction by Peter Dunwoodie. Dunwoodie put The Stranger in its historical, philosophical, and literary setting. He opened my eyes to what gives Camus's book the staying power it has enjoyed. The Everyman's Libraryedition gave a "Select Bibliography" for those who want to know more about Camus and/or his works. Additionally, it set forth a brief chronology from Camus' birth in 1913 until his death by car crash in 1960. This chronology examines his life, the literary context of that time, and pertinent historical events.
I agree with Peter Dunwoodie who, in his insightful and instructive introduction notes, "The Stranger demands to be re-read." (xxvi)