On November 7, 1913, Albert
Camus was born in Algeria. He attended
at the University of Algiers, where he was goalkeeper for the
university team. He contracted tuberculosis
in 1930. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree philosophy in 1935, and in May 1936, he
successfully presented his master’s thesis on Neo-Platonism and Christian
Thought. During the war Camus joined theFrench Resistance cell Combat, which published an underground
newspaper of the same name. This group
worked against the Nazis, and in it Camus assumed the nom de guerre Beauchard. Camus became the
paper's editor in 1943. He met John-Paul
Sartre at the dress rehearsal of Sartre's play, The Flies,
in June 1943. When the Allies liberated Paris in August 1944, Camus witnessed and reported the last of the
fighting. Camus won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. In the words of the committee, he received
the award for "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted
earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times."
I have long admired Camus for
his thoughtful, provocative, and stimulating novels. The Stranger
and The Plague frequently appear on
college reading lists in world literature
and great books classes. This review
will depart somewhat from my usual reviews, because Camus is a serious writer
with a decidedly philosophical bent. While Camus is frequently associated with
Existentialism, he rejected this label.
He broke with his friend Sartre over several issues, but Sartre’s
nihilism topped the list. Camus believed
that life itself was much too valuable to throw away. He once wrote, “Your duty is to live and be
happy.”
The posthumously published A Happy Death foreshadows the work he is
most known for, The Stranger. As notes in the book reveal, the main
difference between A Happy Death and The Stranger lies in the fact that Camus
the man is much more present in the former work than the latter.
I first encountered Camus
back in the 70s. The prose mesmerized me
and drove me to dig deeper into his life.
In Happy Death he wrote: “Summer crammed the harbor with noise and
sunlight. It was eleven thirty. The day split open down the middle, crushing
the docks under the burden of its heat.
Moored at the sheds of the Algiers Municipal Depot, black-hulled,
red-chimneyed freighters were loading sacks of wheat. Their dusty fragrance mingled with the
powerful smell of tar melting under a hot sun.
Men were drinking at a little stall that reeked of creosote and
anisette, while some Arab acrobats in red shirts somersaulted on the scorching
flagstones in front of the sea in the leaping light” (8). This reflects Camus’ memory of the working
class district he lived in and his job with the maritime commission.
The Stranger
and Happy Death deal with a murder by
the main character, Patrice Merseult.
While there are similarities, substantial differences also separate the
two stories. Camus expert, Roger Quillot
explicated these differences. He wrote, “Mersault
is … the younger brother of Mersault’ [in The
Stranger] (165). Another critic Jean
Sarocchi asserts that Happy Death is
a “prefiguration of The Stranger.” This view is based on the comparison of the
structure of the two texts.
Thought-provoking, intriguing,
splendidly written, Camus’ work validates the judgment of the Nobel Literature
Prize committee. 5 stars.
--Chiron, 10-13-13
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