"The Stranger or The Outsider (L’Étranger) is a novel by Albert Camus published in 1942. Its theme and outlook are often cited as exemplars of existentialism, though Camus did not consider himself an existentialist; in fact, its content explores various philosophical schools of thought, including (most prominently and specifically) absurdism, as well as determinism, nihilism, naturalism, and stoicism."
The book is NOT written as a straight out philosophy book. There is an actual story.
This book was originally written in French. I read/listened to the American translation by Mathew Ward. It was read by Jonathon Davis on my audio version. I think it was Jonathon who said he read the English/Great Britain translation while in school.
There is a note from Mathew Ward at the end of the book explaining his American translation is more literal than the English translation of the book. He said the difference would have been subtle, but there are differences between translations.
Wikipedia went on to write:
"Camus was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times".[4] He was the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, after Rudyard Kipling, and the first African-born writer to receive the award.[5] He is the shortest-lived of any Nobel literature laureate to date, having died in an automobile accident just over two years after receiving the award."
This was a very odd little book (3 1/2 hours on audio) which generated a huge amount of discussion at my book review group. My husband listened to it the day of the group and attended with me.
One of the first things we talked about was the fact that it was translated had an impact on how the book came across to us. I described it as "Dick and Jane" primer style writing. Very simple, short sentences. We all kept wondering if it sounded that way in French or if it was beautiful in that language.
Camus describes the book as absurd. And much of what happens in the book IS absurd. Not in a three stooges kind of way, but in a way that goes against what we think of as normal behavior.
I am not going to get into the plot of the book, because there is no way of writing about it, without giving it all away.
All of us (book review group) said this was one of those books which really made us think. And as I mentioned, it generated a lot of discussion. As I think about the members of the group, there is only one who would have read the book even if it was not assigned, because he is a philosophy grad student kind of guy. But all of the rest of us were glad it had been assigned, because we felt it stretched us.
