Albert Camus

Albert Camus (/kæˈmuː/ kam-OO, US also /kəˈmuː/ kə-

MOO; French: [albɛʁ kamy] ( listen) ; 7 November 1913 – 4
Albert Camus
January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, and
journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in
Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in
history. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The
Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel.

Camus was born in French Algeria to Pieds Noirs parents.

He spent his childhood in a poor neighbourhood and later
studied philosophy at the University of Algiers. He was in
Paris when the Germans invaded France during World War
II in 1940. Camus tried to flee but finally joined the French
Resistance where he served as editor-in-chief at Combat, an
outlawed newspaper. After the war, he was a celebrity figure
and gave many lectures around the world. He married twice
but had many extramarital affairs. Camus was politically Portrait from New York World-Telegram
active; he was part of the left that opposed the Soviet Union and Sun Photograph Collection, 1957
because of its totalitarianism. Camus was a moralist and
Born 7 November 1913
leaned towards anarcho-syndicalism. He was part of many
Mondovi, French Algeria
organisations seeking European integration. During the
Algerian War (1954–1962), he kept a neutral stance, (present-day Dréan,
advocating for a multicultural and pluralistic Algeria, a Algeria)
position that caused controversy and was rejected by most Died 4 January 1960
parties. (aged 46)
Villeblevin, France
Philosophically, Camus's views contributed to the rise of the
philosophy known as absurdism. He is also considered to be Alma mater University of Algiers
an existentialist, even though he firmly rejected the term Notable work The Stranger / The
throughout his lifetime. Outsider
The Myth of Sisyphus
The Rebel
Contents The Plague

Life Spouse(s) Simone Hié

Early years and education (m. 1934; div. 1936)
Formative years Francine Faure (m. 1940)
World War II, Resistance and Combat
Region Western philosophy
Post-World War II
School Continental philosophy
Death
Absurdism
Literary career
Existentialism
Political stance
Existentialist anarchism
Role in Algeria
French Nietzscheanism[1]
Philosophy Syndicalist anarchism
Existentialism
Main Ethics, human nature,
Absurdism interests justice, politics,
Revolt philosophy of suicide
Legacy Notable Absurdism
Tributes ideas

Works Influences
Novels Augustine · Dostoevsky · Grenier · Kafka ·
Short stories Kierkegaard · Marx · Nietzsche · Sartre ·
Academic theses Schopenhauer · Stirner · Weil
Non-fiction books Signature
Plays
Essays
References
Sources
Further reading
Selected biographies
External links

Life

Early years and education

Albert Camus was born on 7 November 1913 in a working-class

neighbourhood in Mondovi (present-day Dréan), in French
Algeria. His mother, Catherine Hélène Camus (née Sintès), was
French with Balearic Spanish ancestry. His father, Lucien Camus,
a poor French agricultural worker, died in the Battle of the Marne
in 1914 during World War I. Camus never knew him. Camus, his
mother and other relatives lived without many basic material
possessions during his childhood in the Belcourt section of A 20th-century postcard of the
Algiers. He was a second-generation French in Algeria, a French University of Algiers
territory from 1830 until 1962. His paternal grandfather, along with
many others of his generation, had moved to Algeria for a better
life during the first decades of the 19th century. Hence, he was called pied-noir, ''black foot''—a slang term
for French who were born in Algeria—and his identity and his poor background had a substantial effect on
his later life.[2] Nevertheless, Camus was a French citizen and enjoyed more rights than Arab and Berber
Algerians under indigénat.[3] During his childhood, Camus developed a love for football and swimming.[4]

Under the influence of his teacher Louis Germain, Camus gained a scholarship in 1924 to continue his
studies at a prestigious lyceum (secondary school) near Algiers.[5] In 1930, he was diagnosed with
tuberculosis.[4] Because it is a transmitted disease, he moved out of his home and stayed with his uncle
Gustave Acault, a butcher, who influenced the young Camus. It was at that time that Camus turned to
philosophy, with the mentoring of his philosophy teacher Jean Grenier. He was impressed by ancient Greek
philosophers and Friedrich Nietzsche.[4] During that time, he was only able to study part-time. To earn
money, he took odd jobs: as a private tutor, car parts clerk, and assistant at the Meteorological Institute.[6]
In 1933, Camus enrolled at the University of Algiers and completed his licence de philosophie (BA) in
1936; after presenting his thesis on Plotinus.[7] Camus developed an interest in early Christian philosophers,
but Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer had paved the way towards pessimism and atheism. Camus also
studied novelist-philosophers such as Stendhal, Herman Melville, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Franz
Kafka.[8] In 1933, he also met Simone Hié, then a partner of a friend of Camus, who would become his
first wife.[6]

Camus played goalkeeper for the Racing Universitaire d'Alger junior team from 1928 to 1930.[9] The sense
of team spirit, fraternity, and common purpose appealed to Camus enormously.[10] In match reports, he was
often praised for playing with passion and courage. Any football ambitions disappeared when he contracted
tuberculosis at the age of 17.[9] Camus drew parallels among football, human existence, morality, and
personal identity. For him, the simplistic morality of football contradicted the complicated morality imposed
by authorities such as the state and Church. [9]

Formative years

In 1934, aged 20, Camus was in a relationship with Simone Hié.[11] Simone suffered from an addiction to
morphine, a drug she used to ease her menstrual pains. His uncle Gustave did not approve of the
relationship, but Camus married Hié to help her fight her addiction. He subsequently discovered she was in
a relationship with her doctor at the same time and the couple later divorced.[6] Camus was a womaniser
throughout his life.[12]

Camus joined the French Communist Party (PCF) in early 1935. He saw it as a way to "fight inequalities
between Europeans and 'natives' in Algeria," even though he was not a Marxist. He explained: "We might
see communism as a springboard and asceticism that prepares the ground for more spiritual activities."
Camus left the PCF a year later.[13] In 1936, the independence-minded Algerian Communist Party (PCA)
was founded, and Camus joined it after his mentor Grenier advised him to do so. Camus's main role within
the PCA was to organise the Théâtre du Travail ("Workers' Theatre"). Camus was also close to the Parti
du Peuple Algérien (Algerian People's Party (PPA)), which was a moderate anti-colonialist/nationalist
party. As tensions in the interwar period escalated, the Stalinist PCA and PPA broke ties. Camus was
expelled from the PCA for refusing to toe the party line. This series of events sharpened his belief in human
dignity. Camus's mistrust of bureaucracies that aimed for efficiency instead of justice grew. He continued
his involvement with theatre and renamed his group Théâtre de l'Equipe ("Theatre of the Team"). Some of
his scripts were the basis for his later novels.[14]

In 1938, Camus began working for the leftist newspaper Alger républicain (founded by Pascal Pia) as he
had strong anti-fascist feelings, and the rise of fascist regimes in Europe was worrying him. By then,
Camus had developed strong feelings against authoritative colonialism as he witnessed the harsh treatment
of the Arabs and Berbers by French authorities. Alger républicain was banned in 1940 and Camus flew to
Paris to take a new job at Paris-Soir as editor-in-chief. In Paris, he almost completed his "first cycle" of
works dealing with the absurd and the meaningless—the novel L'Étranger (The Outsider (UK), or The
Stranger (US)), the philosophical essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus) and the play Caligula.
Each cycle consisted of a novel, an essay and a theatrical play.[15]

World War II, Resistance and Combat

Soon after Camus moved to Paris, the outbreak of World War II began to affect France. Camus volunteered
to join the army but was not accepted because he had suffered from tuberculosis. As the Germans were
marching towards Paris, Camus fled. He was laid off from Paris-Soir and ended up in Lyon, where he
married pianist and mathematician Francine Faure on 3 December 1940.[16] Camus and Faure moved back
to Algeria (Oran) where he taught in primary schools.[17] Because of his tuberculosis, he moved to the
French Alps on medical advice. There he began writing his second cycle of works, this time dealing with
revolt—a novel La Peste (The Plague) and a play Le Malentendu (The Misunderstanding). By 1943 he
was known because of his earlier work. He returned to Paris where he met and became friends with Jean-
Paul Sartre. He also became part of a circle of intellectuals including Simone de Beauvoir, André Breton,
and others. Among them was the actress María Casares, who would later have an affair with Camus.[18]

Camus took an active role in the underground resistance movement against the Germans during the French
Occupation. Upon his arrival in Paris, he started working as a journalist and editor of the banned
newspaper Combat. He continued writing for the paper after the liberation of France.[19] Camus used a
pseudonym for his Combat articles and used false ID cards to avoid being captured. During that period he
composed four Lettres à un Ami Allemand (Letters to a German Friend), explaining why resistance was
necessary.[20]

Post-World War II
External video
After the War, Camus lived in Paris with Faure, who gave birth to
twins, Catherine and Jean in 1945.[21] Camus was now a Presentation by Olivier Todd on
celebrated writer known for his role in the Resistance. He gave Albert Camus: A Life, December 15,
lectures at various universities in the United States and Latin 1997 (https://www.c-span.org/vide
America during two separate trips. He also visited Algeria once o/?97122-1/albert-camus-life), C-
more, only to leave disappointed by the continued oppressive SPAN
colonial policies, which he had warned about many times. During
this period he completed the second cycle of his work, with the
essay L'Homme révolté (The Rebel). Camus attacked totalitarian communism while advocating libertarian
socialism and anarcho-syndicalism.[22] Upsetting many of his colleagues and contemporaries in France
with his rejection of communism, the book brought about the final split with Sartre. His relations with the
Marxist Left deteriorated further during the Algerian War.[23]

Camus was a strong supporter of European integration in various marginal organisations working towards
that end.[24] In 1944, he founded the Comité français pour la féderation européenne—(CFFE (French
Committee for the European Federation))—declaring that Europe "can only evolve along the path of
economic progress, democracy, and peace if the nation-states become a federation."[24] In 1947–48, he
founded the Groupes de Liaison Internationale (GLI) a trade union movement in the context of
revolutionary syndicalism (syndicalisme révolutionnaire).[25] His main aim was to express the positive side
of surrealism and existentialism, rejecting the negativity and the nihilism of André Breton. Camus also
raised his voice against the Soviet intervention in Hungary and the totalitarian tendencies of Franco's
regime in Spain.[24]

Camus had numerous affairs, particularly an irregular and eventually public affair with the Spanish-born
actress María Casares, with whom he had extensive correspondence.[26] Faure did not take this affair
lightly. She had a mental breakdown and needed hospitalisation in the early 1950s. Camus, who felt guilty,
withdrew from public life and was slightly depressed for some time.[27]

In 1957, Camus received the news that he was to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. This came as a
shock to him. He was anticipating André Malraux would win the prestigious award. At age 44, he was the
second-youngest recipient of the prize, after Rudyard Kipling, who was 42. After this he began working on
his autobiography Le Premier Homme (The First Man) in an attempt to examine "moral learning". He also
turned to the theatre once more. [28] Financed by the money he received with his Nobel Prize, he adapted
and directed for the stage Dostoyevsky's novel Demons. The play opened in January 1959 at the Antoine
Theatre in Paris and was a critical success.[29]
 During these years, he
published posthumously
the works of the
philosopher Simone Weil,
in the series "Espoir"
("Hope") which he had
founded for Éditions
Gallimard. Weil had great
influence on his
philosophy, [30] since he
saw her writings as an
"antidote" to
nihilism.[31][32] Camus
described her as "the only
great spirit of our
Simone Weil
times".[33]

Death

Camus died on 4 January

1960 at the age of 46, in a
car accident near Sens, in
Le Grand Fossard in the
small town of Villeblevin.
He had spent the New
Year's holiday of 1960 at
his house in Lourmarin,
Vaucluse with his family,
Albert Camus's gravestone
and his publisher Michel The bronze plaque on the monument
Gallimard of Éditions to Camus in the town of Villeblevin,
Gallimard, along with France. Translated from French, it
Gallimard's wife, Janine, and daughter. Camus's wife and children reads: "From the General Council of
went back to Paris by train on 2 January, but Camus decided to the Yonne Department, in homage to
return in Gallimard's luxurious Facel Vega HK500. The car the writer Albert Camus whose
crashed into a plane tree on a long straight stretch of the Route remains lay in vigil at the Villeblevin
nationale 5 (now the RN 6). Camus, who was in the passenger town hall on the night of 4 to 5
seat, died instantly.[34] Gallimard died a few days later, although January 1960"
his wife and daughter were unharmed. There has been speculation
that Camus was assassinated by the KGB because of his criticism
of Soviet abuses.[35][36]

144 pages of a handwritten manuscript entitled Le premier Homme (The First Man) were found in the
wreckage. Camus had predicted that this unfinished novel based on his childhood in Algeria would be his
finest work.[21] Camus was buried in the Lourmarin Cemetery, Vaucluse, France, where he had lived.[37]
His friend Sartre read a eulogy, paying tribute to Camus's heroic "stubborn humanism".[38] William
Faulkner wrote his obituary, saying, "When the door shut for him he had already written on this side of it
that which every artist who also carries through life with him that one same foreknowledge and hatred of
death, is hoping to do: I was here."[39]

Literary career
Camus's first publication was a play called Révolte dans les
Asturies (Revolt in the Asturias) written with three friends in May
1936. The subject was the 1934 revolt by Spanish miners that was
brutally suppressed by the Spanish government resulting in 1,500
to 2,000 deaths. In May 1937 he wrote his first book, L'Envers et
l'Endroit (Betwixt and Between, also translated as The Wrong Side
and the Right Side). Both were published by Edmond Charlot's
small publishing house.[40]

Camus separated his work into three cycles. Each cycle consisted
of a novel, an essay, and a play. The first was the cycle of the The monument to Camus built in
absurd consisting of L'Étranger, Le Mythe de Sysiphe, and Villeblevin, where he died in a car
Caligula. The second was the cycle of the revolt which included crash on 4 January 1960
La Peste (The Plague), L'Homme révolté (The Rebel), and Les
Justes (The Just Assassins). The third, the cycle of the love,
consisted of Nemesis. Each cycle was an examination of a theme
with the use of a pagan myth and including biblical motifs.[41]

The books in the first cycle were published between 1942 and
1944, but the theme was conceived earlier, at least as far back as
1936.[42] With this cycle, Camus aims to pose a question on the
human condition, discuss the world as an absurd place, and warn
humanity of the consequences of totalitarianism.[43]

Camus began his work on the second cycle while he was in

Algeria, in the last months of 1942, just as the Germans were
reaching North Africa.[44] In the second cycle, Camus used
Prometheus, who is depicted as a revolutionary humanist, to Camus crowning Stockholm's Lucia
highlight the nuances between revolution and rebellion. He on 13 December 1957, three days
analyses various aspects of rebellion, its metaphysics, its after accepting the Nobel Prize in
connection to politics, and examines it under the lens of modernity, Literature
of historicity and the absence of a God.[45]

After receiving the Nobel Prize, Camus gathered, clarified, and published his pacifist leaning views at
Actuelles III: Chronique algérienne 1939–1958 (Algerian Chronicles). He then decided to distance himself
from the Algerian War as he found the mental burden too heavy. He turned to theatre and the third cycle
which was about love and the goddess Nemesis.[28]

Two of Camus's works were published posthumously. The first entitled La mort heureuse (A Happy Death)
(1970), features a character named Patrice Mersault, comparable to The Stranger's Meursault. There is
scholarly debate about the relationship between the two books. The second was an unfinished novel, Le
Premier homme (The First Man) (1995), which Camus was writing before he died. It was an
autobiographical work about his childhood in Algeria and its publication in 1994 sparked a widespread
reconsideration of Camus's allegedly unrepentant colonialism.[46]
 Works of Camus by genre and cycle, according to Matthew Sharpe[47]
Pagan
Years Biblical motif Novel Plays
myth
Caligula,
1937–
Sisyphus Alienation, exile The Stranger (L'Étranger) The Misunderstanding (Le
42
Malentendu)
The State of Siege (L'État de
1943–
Prometheus Rebellion The Plague (La Peste) siège)
52
The Just (Les Justes)
Guilt, the fall; exile & the Adaptations of The Possessed
1952–
kingdom; The Fall (La Chute) (Dostoevsky);
58
John the Baptist, Christ Faulkner's Requiem for a Nun
The First Man (Le
1958– Nemesis The Kingdom
Premier Homme)

Political stance
Camus was a moralist; he claimed morality should guide politics. While he did not deny that morals change
over time, he rejected the classical Marxist view that historical material relations define morality.[48]

Camus was also strongly critical of Marxism-Leninism, especially in the case of the Soviet Union, which
he considered totalitarian. Camus rebuked those sympathetic to the Soviet model and their "decision to call
total servitude freedom".[49] A proponent of libertarian socialism, he claimed the USSR was not socialist,
and the United States was not liberal.[50] His critique of the USSR caused him to clash with others on the
political left, most notably with his on-again, off-again friend Jean-Paul Sartre.[48]

Active in the French Resistance to the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, Camus wrote for
and edited the famous Resistance journal Combat. Of the French collaboration with the German 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."[51] After France's liberation, Camus
remarked, "This country does not need a Talleyrand, but a Saint-Just."[52] The reality of the postwar
tribunals soon changed his mind: Camus publicly reversed himself and became a lifelong opponent of
capital punishment.[52]

Camus leaned towards anarchism, a tendency that intensified in the 1950s, when he came to believe that
the Soviet model was morally bankrupt.[53] Camus was firmly against any kind of exploitation, authority,
property, the State, and centralization.[54] Philosophy professor David Sherman considers Camus an
anarcho-syndicalist.[55] Graeme Nicholson considers Camus an existentialist anarchist.[56]

The anarchist André Prudhommeaux first introduced him at a meeting of the Cercle des Étudiants
Anarchistes ("Anarchist Student Circle") in 1948 as a sympathiser familiar with anarchist thought. Camus
wrote for anarchist publications such as Le Libertaire (The Libertarian), La Révolution prolétarienne (The
Proletarian Revolution), and Solidaridad Obrera ("Workers' Solidarity"), the organ of the anarcho-
syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) ("National Confederation of Labor").[57]

Camus kept a neutral stance during the Algerian Revolution (1954–62). While he was against the violence
of the National Liberation Front (FLN) he acknowledged the injustice and brutalities imposed by colonialist
France. He was supportive of Pierre Mendès' Unified Socialist Party (PSU) and its approach to the crisis;
Mendes advocated reconciliation. Camus also supported a like-minded Algerian militant, Aziz Kessous.
Camus traveled to Algeria to negotiate a truce between the two belligerents but was met with distrust by all
parties.[58] In one famous and often misquoted incident, Camus confronted an Algerian critic during his
1957 Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Stockholm, rejecting the false equivalence of justice with
revolutionary terrorism: “People are now planting bombs in the tramways of Algiers. My mother might be
on one of those tramways. If that is justice, then I prefer my mother.”[59][60] Camus' critics have labelled
the response as reactionary and a result of a colonialist attitude.[61]

He was sharply critical of the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.[62] In the 1950s, Camus devoted his efforts to human rights. In 1952, he resigned from his work
for UNESCO when the UN accepted Spain, under the leadership of the caudillo General Francisco Franco,
as a member.[27] Camus maintained his pacifism and resisted capital punishment anywhere in the world. He
wrote an essay against capital punishment in collaboration with Arthur Koestler, the writer, intellectual, and
founder of the League Against Capital Punishment entitled Réflexions sur la peine capitale (Reflections on
capital punishment), published by Calmann-Levy in 1957.[63]

Role in Algeria
Born in Algeria to French parents, Camus was familiar with the
institutional racism of France against Arabs and Berbers, but he
was not part of a rich elite. He lived in very poor conditions as a
child but was a citizen of France and as such was entitled to
citizens' rights; members of the country's Arab and Berber majority
were not.[64]

Camus was a vocal advocate of the "new Mediterranean Culture".

This was his vision of embracing the multi-ethnicity of the
Algerian people, in opposition to "Latiny", a popular pro-fascist
and antisemitic ideology among other Pieds-Noirs—or French or
Europeans born in Algeria. For Camus, this vision encapsulated
the Hellenic humanism which survived among ordinary people Administrative organization of French
around the Mediterranean Sea.[65] His 1938 address on "The New Algeria between 1905 and 1955
Mediterranean Culture" represents Camus's most systematic
statement of his views at this time. Camus also supported the
Blum–Viollette proposal to grant Algerians full French citizenship in a manifesto with arguments defending
this assimilative proposal on radical egalitarian grounds. [66] In 1939, Camus wrote a stinging series of
articles for the Alger républicain on the atrocious living conditions of the inhabitants of the Kabylie
highlands. He advocated for economic, educational and political reforms as a matter of emergency.[67]

In 1945, following the Sétif and Guelma massacre after Arab revolts against French mistreatment, Camus
was one of only a few mainland journalists to visit the colony. He wrote a series of articles reporting on
conditions, and advocating for French reforms and concessions to the demands of the Algerian people.[68]

When the Algerian War began in 1954, Camus was confronted with a moral dilemma. He identified with
the Pieds-Noirs such as his own parents and defended the French government's actions against the revolt.
He argued the Algerian uprising was 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".[69]
Although favoring greater Algerian autonomy or even federation, though not full-scale independence, he
believed the Pieds-Noirs and Arabs could co-exist. During the war, he advocated a civil truce that would
spare the civilians. It was rejected by both sides who regarded it as foolish. Behind the scenes, he began
working for imprisoned Algerians who faced the death penalty.[70] His position drew much criticism from
the left and later postcolonial literary critics, such as Edward Said, who were opposed to European
imperialism, and charged that Camus's novels and short stories are plagued with colonial depictions - or
conscious erasures - of Algeria's Arab population.[71] In their eyes, Camus was no longer the defender of
the oppressed.[72]

Camus once confided that the troubles in Algeria "affected him as others feel pain in their lungs."[73]

Philosophy

Existentialism

Even though Camus is mostly connected to absurdism,[74] he is routinely categorized as an existentialist, a

term he rejected on several occasions.[75]

Camus himself said his philosophical origins lay in ancient Greek philosophy, Nietzsche, and 17th-century
moralists whereas existentialism arises from 19th- and early 20th-century philosophy such as Kierkegaard,
Karl Jaspers, and Heidegger.[76] He also said his work, The Myth of Sisyphus, was a criticism of various
aspects of existentialism.[77] Camus was rejecting existentialism as a philosophy, but his critique was
mostly focused on Sartrean existentialism, and to a lesser extent on religious existentialism. He thought that
the importance of history held by Marx and Sartre was incompatible with his belief in human freedom.[78]
David Sherman and others also suggest the rivalry between Sartre and Camus also played a part in his
rejection of existentialism.[79] David Simpson argues further that his humanism and belief in human nature
set him apart from the existentialist doctrine that existence precedes essence.[80]

On the other hand, Camus focused most of his philosophy around existential questions. The absurdity of
life, the inevitable ending (death) is highlighted in his acts. His belief was that the absurd—life being void
of meaning, or man's inability to know that meaning if it were to exist—was something that man should
embrace. His anti-Christianity, his commitment to individual moral freedom and responsibility are only a
few of the similarities with other existential writers.[81] More importantly, Camus addressed one of the
fundamental questions of existentialism: the problem of suicide. He wrote: "There is only one really serious
philosophical question, and that is suicide." Camus viewed the question of suicide as arising naturally as a
solution to the absurdity of life.[48]

Absurdism

Many existentialist writers have addressed the Absurd, each with their own interpretation of what it is and
what makes it important. Kierkegaard explains that the absurdity of religious truths prevents us from
reaching God rationally.[82] Sartre recognizes the absurdity of individual experience. Camus's thoughts on
the Absurd begin with his first cycle of books and the literary essay The Myth of Sisyphus, (Le Mythe de
Sisyphe), his major work on the subject. In 1942 he published the story of a man living an absurd life in
L'Étranger. He also wrote a play about the Roman emperor Caligula, pursuing an absurd logic, which was
not performed until 1945. His early thoughts appeared in his first collection of essays, L'Envers et l'endroit
(Betwixt and Between) in 1937. Absurd themes were expressed with more sophistication in his second
collection of essays, Noces (Nuptials), in 1938 and Betwixt and Between. In these essays, Camus reflects
on the experience of the Absurd.[83] Aspects of the notion of the Absurd can be found in The Plague.[84]

Camus follows Sartre's definition of the Absurd: "That which is meaningless. Thus man's existence is
absurd because his contingency finds no external justification".[82] The Absurd is created because man,
who is placed in an unintelligent universe, realises that human values are not founded on a solid external
component; or as Camus himself explains, the Absurd is the result of the "confrontation between human
need and the unreasonable silence of the world."[85] Even though absurdity is inescapable, Camus does not
drift towards nihilism. But the realization of absurdity leads to the question: Why should someone continue
to live? Suicide is an option that Camus firmly dismisses as the renunciation of human values and freedom.
Rather, he proposes we accept that absurdity is a part of our lives and live with it.[86]

The turning point in Camus's 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.
The four letters were published as Lettres à un ami allemand (Letters to a German Friend) in 1945, and
were included in the collection Resistance, Rebellion, and Death.

Camus regretted the continued reference to himself as a "philosopher of the absurd". He showed less
interest in the Absurd shortly after publishing Le Mythe de Sisyphe. To distinguish his ideas, scholars
sometimes refer to the Paradox of the Absurd, when referring to "Camus's Absurd".[87]

Revolt

Camus is known for articulating the case for revolting against any kind of oppression, injustice, or whatever
disrespects the human condition. He is cautious enough, however, to set the limits on the rebellion.[88]
L'Homme révolté (The Rebel) explains in detail his thoughts on the issue. There, he builds upon the absurd
(described in The Myth of Sisyphus) but goes further. In the introduction, where he examines the
metaphysics of rebellion, he concludes with the phrase "I revolt, therefore we exist" implying the
recognition of a common human condition.[89] Camus also delineates the difference between revolution
and rebellion and notices that history has shown that the rebel's revolution might easily end up as an
oppressive regime; he therefore places importance on the morals accompanying the revolution.[90] Camus
poses a crucial question: Is it possible for humans to act in an ethical and meaningful manner, in a silent
universe? According to him the answer is yes, as the experience and awareness of the Absurd creates the
moral values and also sets the limits of our actions.[91] Camus separates the modern form of rebellion into
two modes. First, there is the metaphysical rebellion, which is "the movement by which man protests
against his condition and against the whole of creation." The other mode, historical rebellion, is the attempt
to materialize the abstract spirit of metaphysical rebellion and change the world. In this attempt, the rebel
must balance between the evil of the world and the intrinsic evil which every revolt carries, and not cause
any unjustifiable suffering.[92]

Legacy
Camus's novels and philosophical essays are still influential. After his death, interest in Camus followed the
rise (and diminution) of the New Left. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, interest in his alternative
road to communism resurfaced.[93] He is remembered for his skeptical humanism and his support for
political tolerance, dialogue, and civil rights.[94]

Although Camus has been linked to anti-Soviet communism, reaching as far as anarcho-syndicalism, some
neo-liberals have tried to associate him with their policies; for instance, the French President Nicolas
Sarkozy suggested that his remains be moved to the Panthéon, an idea that angered many on the Left.[95]

Tributes
In Tipasa (Algeria), inside the Roman ruins, facing the sea and Mount Chenoua, a stele was
erected in 1961 in honor of Albert Camus with this phrase in French extracted from his work
Noces à Tipasa: “I understand here what is called glory: the right to love beyond measure "
(« Je comprends ici ce qu'on appelle gloire : le droit d'aimer sans mesure. »).[96]
 The French Post published a stamp with his effigy on June 26, 1967.[97]

Works
The works of Albert Camus include:[98]

Novels
A Happy Death (La Mort heureuse) (written 1936–38, published 1971)
The Stranger (L'Étranger, often translated as The Outsider. An alternate meaning of
"l'étranger" is "foreigner" ) (1942)
The Plague (La Peste) (1947)
The Fall (La Chute) (1956)
The First Man (Le premier homme) (incomplete, published 1994)

Short stories
Exile and the Kingdom (L'exil et le royaume) (collection, 1957), containing the following
short stories:
"The Adulterous Woman" (La Femme adultère)
"The Renegade or a Confused Spirit" (Le Renégat ou un esprit confus)
"The Silent Men" (Les Muets)
"The Guest" (L'Hôte)
"Jonas, or the Artist at Work" (Jonas, ou l'artiste au travail)
"The Growing Stone" (La Pierre qui pousse)

Academic theses
Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism (Métaphysique chrétienne et néoplatonisme)
(1935): the thesis that enabled Camus to teach in secondary schools in France

Non-fiction books
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)
Algerian Chronicles (Chroniques algériennes) (1958, first English translation published
2013)
Resistance, Rebellion, and Death (collection, 1961)
Notebooks 1935–1942 (Carnets, mai 1935 — fevrier 1942) (1962)
Notebooks 1942–1951 (Carnets II: janvier 1942-mars 1951) (1965)
Lyrical and Critical Essays (collection, 1968)
American Journals (Journaux de voyage) (1978)
 Notebooks 1951–1959 (2008). Published as Carnets Tome III: Mars 1951 – December 1959
(1989)
Correspondence (1944–1959) The correspondence of Albert Camus and María Casares,
with a preface by his daughter, Catherine Camus (2017)

Plays
Caligula (performed 1945, written 1938)
The Misunderstanding (Le Malentendu) (1944)
The State of Siege (L'État de Siège) (1948)
The Just Assassins (Les Justes) (1949)
Requiem for a Nun (Requiem pour une nonne, adapted from William Faulkner's novel by the
same name) (1956)
The Possessed (Les Possédés, adapted from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel Demons) (1959)

Essays
The Crisis of Man (Lecture at Columbia University) (28 March 1946)
Neither Victims nor Executioners (Series of essays in Combat) (1946)
Why Spain? (Essay for the theatrical play L'Etat de Siège) (1948)
Summer (L'Été) (1954)[24]
Reflections on the Guillotine (Réflexions sur la guillotine) (Extended essay, 1957)[99]
Create Dangerously (Essay on Realism and Artistic Creation, lecture at the University of
Uppsala in Sweden) (1957)[100]

References
1. Schrift, Alan D. (2010). "French Nietzscheanism" (https://www.nietzsche-en-france.fr/app/do
wnload/12288269526/SCHRIFT+-+French+Nietzscheanism.pdf) (PDF). In Schrift, Alan D.
(ed.). Poststructuralism and Critical Theory's Second Generation. The History of Continental
Philosophy. 6. Durham, UK: Acumen. pp. 19–46. ISBN 978-1-84465-216-7.
2. Sherman 2009, p. 10; Hayden 2016, p. 7; Lottman 1979, p. 11; Carroll 2007, pp. 2–3.
3. Carroll 2007, pp. 2–3.
4. Sherman 2009, p. 11.
5. Hayden 2016, p. 8.
6. Hayden 2016, p. 9.
7. Sherman 2009, p. 11: Camus' thesis was titled "Rapports de l'hellénisme et du christianisme
à travers les oeuvres de Plotin et de saint Augustin" ("Relationship of Greek and Christian
Thought in Plotinus and St. Augustine") for his diplôme d'études supérieures (roughly
equivalent to an MA thesis).
8. Simpson 2019, Background and Influences.
9. Clarke 2009, p. 488.
10. Lattal 1995.
11. Cohn 1986, p. 30; Hayden 2016.
12. Sherman 2009; Hayden 2016, p. 13.
13. Todd 2000, pp. 249–250; Sherman 2009, p. 12.
14. Hayden 2016, pp. 10–11.
15. Hayden 2016, p. 12; Sherman 2009, pp. 12–13.
16. Hayden 2016, pp. 13–14.
17. Sherman 2009, p. 13.
18. Hayden 2016; Sherman 2009, p. 13.
19. Hayden 2016; Sherman 2009, p. 23.
20. Hayden 2016, p. 15.
21. Willsher 2011.
22. Hayden 2016, p. 17.
23. Hayden 2016, pp. 16–17.
24. Hayden 2016, p. 18.
25. Todd 2000, pp. 249–250; Schaffner 2006, p. 107.
26. Sherman 2009, pp. 14–17; Zaretsky 2018.
27. Sherman 2009, p. 17.
28. Hayden 2016, p. 19.
29. Sherman 2009, p. 18.
30. Jeanyves GUÉRIN, Guy BASSET (2013). Dictionnaire Albert Camus. Groupe Robert
Laffont. ISBN 978-2-221-14017-8.
31. Stefan Skrimshire, 2006, A Political Theology of the Absurd? Albert Camus and Simone
Weil on Social Transformation, Literature and Theology, Volume 20, Issue 3, September
2006, Pages 286–300 (https://academic.oup.com/litthe/article-abstract/20/3/286/1021593)
32. Rik Van Nieuwenhove, 2005, Albert Camus, Simone Weil and the Absurd, Irish Theological
Quarterly, 70, 343 (https://www.academia.edu/29937662/Albert_Camus_Simone_Weil_and
_the_Absurd)
33. John Hellman (1983). Simone Weil: An Introduction to Her Thought. Wilfrid Laurier
University Press. pp. 1–23. ISBN 978-0-88920-121-7.
34. Sherman 2009, p. 19; Simpson 2019, Life.
35. Catelli 2019.
36. Flood 2019.
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38. Simpson 2019, Life.
39. "Without God or Reason | Commonweal Magazine" (https://www.commonwealmagazine.or
g/without-god-or-reason). www.commonwealmagazine.org. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
40. Hayden 2016, p. 11.
41. Sharpe 2015, pp. 41–44.
42. Hayden 2016, p. 23.
43. Hayden 2016, p. 41.
44. Hayden 2016, p. 14.
45. Hayden 2016, pp. 45–47.
46. Carroll 2007.
47. Sharpe 2015, p. 44.
48. Aronson 2017, Introduction.
49. Foley 2008, pp. 75–76.
50. Sherman 2009, pp. 185–87.
51. Bernstein 1997.
52. Bronner 2009, p. 74.
53. Dunwoodie 1993, p. 86; Marshall 1993, p. 445.
54. Dunwoodie 1993, p. 87.
55. Sherman 2009, p. 185.
56. Nicholson 1971, p. 14.
57. Dunwoodie 1993, pp. 87–87: See also appendix p 97; Hayden 2016, p. 18.
58. Sherman 2009, pp. 17–18 & 188; Cohn 1986, pp. 30 & 38.
59. Scialabba, George (April 2013). "Resistance, Rebellion, and Writing" (https://www.bookforu
m.com/print/2001/albert-camus-s-dispatches-on-the-algerian-crisis-appear-in-english-for-the
-first-time-11228). Bookforum. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
60. Sherman 2009, p. 191.
61. Sherman 2009, p. 19; Simpson 2019; Marshall 1993, p. 584.
62. Hayden 2016, p. 87.
63. Hayden 2016, p. 73 & 85.
64. Carroll 2007, pp. 3–4.
65. Hayden 2016, p. 141-143.
66. Hayden 2016, p. 145.
67. Sharpe 2015, p. 356.
68. Foley 2008, pp. 150–151.
69. Sharpe 2015, p. 322.
70. Foley 2008, p. 161.
71. Amin 2021, pp. 31–32.
72. Carroll 2007, pp. 7–8.
73. Sharpe 2015, p. 9.
74. Sherman 2009, p. 3.
75. Sharpe 2015, p. 3; Sherman 2009, p. 3.
76. Foley 2008, pp. 1–2; Sharpe 2015, p. 29.
77. Foley 2008, pp. 2.
78. Foley 2008, p. 3; Sherman 2009, p. 3.
79. Sherman 2009, p. 4; Simpson 2019, Existentialism.
80. Simpson 2019, Existentialism.
81. Sharpe 2015, pp. 5–6; Simpson 2019, Existentialism.
82. Foley 2008, pp. 5–6.
83. Sherman 2009, p. 23.
84. Sherman 2009, p. 8.
85. Foley 2008, p. 6.
86. Foley 2008, p. 7-10.
87. Curtis 1972, p. 335-348.
88. Sharpe 2015, p. 18; Simpson 2019, Revolt.
89. Foley 2008, pp. 55–56.
90. Foley 2008, pp. 56–58.
91. Hayden 2016, pp. 43–44.
92. Hayden 2016, pp. 50–55.
93. Sherman 2009, pp. 207–208.
94. Sharpe 2015, pp. 241–242.
95. Zaretsky 2013, pp. 3–4; Sherman 2009, p. 208.
96. "Au sujet de la stèle de Camus dans les ruines de Tipaza" (https://tipaza.typepad.fr/mon_we
blog/2012/10/au-sujet-de-la-st%C3%A8le-de-camus-dans-les-ruines-de-tipaza.html).
 97. "La Poste" (https://www.laposte.fr/toutsurletimbre/connaissance-du-timbre/dicotimbre/timbre
s/albert-camus-1514).
98. Hughes 2007, p. xvii.
99. Hayden 2016, p. 86.
100. Sharpe 2015, p. 20.

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1-Spring-2021.pdf#page=28) (PDF). Journal of Contemporary Development & Management
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Aronson, Ronald (2017). "Albert Camus" (https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entrie
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Bernstein, Richard (19 December 1997). "In Camus's notebooks and letters, as quoted in,
'Albert Camus: A Life', By Olivier Todd" (https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/19/books/books-o
f-the-times-camus-as-a-principled-rebel-among-poseurs.html). The New York Times.
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Bloom, Harold (2009). Albert Camus (https://books.google.com/books?id=ihqHSbg41TUC).
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231-51176-6.
Catelli, Giovanni (2019). La mort de Camus [The death of Camus] (in French). Balland.
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CBYC). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-0328-5.
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d=PQjeAAAAQBAJ). Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-72837-0.

Further reading

Selected biographies
Thody, Philip Malcolm Waller (1957). Albert Camus: A Study of His Work (https://books.goog
le.com/books?id=NmAzAAAAMAAJ). Hamish Hamilton.
Brisville, Jean-Claude (1959). Camus (https://archive.org/details/camus0000bris). Gallimard.
Parker, Emmett (1965). Albert Camus: The Artist in the Arena (https://archive.org/details/albe
rtcamusartis00park). Univ of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-03554-9.
King, Adele (1964). Albert Camus (https://books.google.com/books?id=CmQoAQAAIAAJ).
Grove Press.
McCarthy, Patrick (1982). Camus: A Critical Study of His Life and Work (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=VJNcAAAAMAAJ). Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-241-10603-7.
 Sprintzen, David (February 1991). Camus: A Critical Examination (https://books.google.com/
books?id=ugWANQAACAAJ). Temple University Press. ISBN 978-0-87722-827-1.
King, Adele (12 June 1992). Camus's L'Etranger: Fifty Years on (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=FQexCwAAQBAJ). Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-1-349-22003-8.
Bloom, Harold (2009). Albert Camus (https://books.google.com/books?id=ihqHSbg41TUC).
Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-1515-3.
Pierre Louis Rey (2006). Camus: l'homme révolté (https://books.google.com/books?id=nFRl
AAAAMAAJ). Gallimard. ISBN 978-2-07-031828-5.
Hawes, Elizabeth (2009). Camus, a Romance (https://archive.org/details/camusromance00h
awe). Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-1889-9.
Carroll, Sean B. (2013). Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring
Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=XchvDwAAQBAJ). Crown Publishers. ISBN 978-0-307-95234-9.

External links
Albert Camus. Selective and Cumulative Bibliography (http://camusbibliography.boisestate.
edu/) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160304043919/http://camusbibliography.bois
estate.edu/) 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
Gay-Crosier Camus collection (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/camus/default.htm) at University
of Florida Library
Albert Camus Society UK (http://www.camus-society.com/)
Works by Albert Camus (https://fadedpage.com/csearch.php?author=Camus%2C%20Albert)
at Faded Page (Canada)
Albert Camus (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/628) on Nobelprize.org

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