Starting on The Stranger is a good call: Camus' later novels kept getting more complex… which is not to say that The Stranger is lightweight.

These days, Camus is most famous as the author of three big-deal novels: The Stranger (1942), The Plague(1947), and The Fall (1956).

But don't go saying that Camus was an existentialist-having his philosophical musings pegged as existentialism was a huge pet peeve of Camus' back when he was alive (and channeling Humphrey Bogart). So who was this Camus guy, anyway? He was a trés famous French thinker known for his philosophy of the absurd, which is a cousin of the philosophy of existentialism. In other words, Camus's book is about Philosophy with a capital P. Camus uses all the events leading up to the shooting (and Meursault's subsequent trial, and prison sentence) to explore issues of meaning and meaninglessness in life. This charming guy shoots and kills a man, Johnny Cash-style, just to watch him die.īut this ain't just a feel-bad book about a cold-blooded seaside murder. The Stranger-or L'Étranger, if you want to be all authentically French about it (pro-tip: lose the beret and the baguette)-is an absurdist novel about a bonafide weirdo named Meursault.

Okay-try this absurd tidbit on for size: a man loses his mom, murders a dude on a beach, and is sentenced to death. What's the first thing you think of when we say the word 'absurd'? A baby rhino trying to act like a baby goat? Fashion week? Maybe an eleven minute long homage to 80's sitcoms starring a bearded psychopath? Or how about a platypus (have you ever really looked at one)? Want more deets? We've also got a complete Online Course about The Stranger, with three weeks worth of readings and activities to make sure you know your stuff.

The stranger the outsider albert camus