THE STRANGER

BY A L B E RT C A M U S
BOOK DETAILS
• First published in French in 1942 by Albert Camus
• There are three English translations of The Stranger.  The original
translation by Stuart Gilbert was the classic translation for over 30 years in
1946. 
• More recently, in 1982, a new English translation appeared by Joseph
Laredo which was titled The Outsider. 
• Then in 1988 a new “American” translation by Matthew Ward was published
and it was again titled The Stranger.  This latest translation has been
praised for modernizing the language while being very true to the original
and I fully agree with this assessment.
• Albert Camus born on November 7,
1913, died on January 4, 1960, was
a French philosopher, author, and
journalist.
• His views contributed to the rise of the
philosophy known as absurdism. He
wrote in his essay ”The Rebel” that his
whole life was devoted to opposing the
philosophy of nihilism.
• He won the Nobel Prize in Literature at
the age of 44 in 1957, the second
youngest recipient in history.
• Camus was born in French Algeria to
an ethnic French family and studied at
the University of Algiers, from which
he graduated in 1936.
SUMMARY OF THE BOOK
• A French Algerian office worker in his 20’s, Meursault, learns his mother has
passed away. He goes out to the retirement home where she spent her last
days and attends the funeral. Later, he makes friends with a petty white
criminal, Raymond, who lives in the same apartment block as himself. This
man beats his Arab girlfriend up and the girlfriend’s brother seeks revenge.
There is a fight on the beach. The brother has a knife, and cuts Raymond,
who seeks to retaliate with a gun. Things cool down. Meursault is walking
alone along the beach some time after the initial confrontation when he
spots the brother, lying in the sand. Meursault remembers he still has the
gun, given to him by Raymond for safekeeping. He shoots and kills the
brother. Meursault is arrested, tried, found guilty and sentenced to death.
PLOT DETAILS AND LEGAL THEMES
• At the trial, the prosecuting attorney portrays Meursault's quietness and
passivity as demonstrating guilt and a lack of remorse. The prosecutor tells
the jury more about Meursault's inability or unwillingness to cry at his
mother's funeral and the murder. He pushes Meursault to tell the truth, but
the man resists. Later, on his own, Meursault tells the reader that he simply
was never able to feel any remorse or personal emotions for any of his
actions in life. The dramatic prosecutor denounces Meursault, claiming that
he must be a soulless monster, incapable of remorse, and thus deserves to
die for his crime.
EVALUATION AND REFLECTION
• We try to fit into the public not just to become an outcast. We try to fit in
even it becomes detrimental to our wellbeing. But this is not the case of
Meursault. He doesn’t care about what other people will say. He wants to be
true to himself to the point that others are judging him as indifferent.
Meursault comes across as being distanced or separated from general
society and this is exactly why the novel was entitled, The Stranger.
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