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Summary: Hello
Review: The Stranger was the first novel of Camus' labeled "absurd," and it defines Camus for most Americans. The plot is quite simple, with none of the diversions common in popular literature. The main character is not a hero, has no "true" love affair and the pursuit of money and power never enters the story. The Stranger is an honest atheist, waiting for life to happen. The title l'Etranger, has been poorly translated. The U.S. title, The Stranger, implies that the main character, Meursault, has been viewed as a "strange" or "odd" person for some time. The other possible meaning is that no one knows him. Meursault is a stranger even to those who think they know him. These definitions do not seem adequate. The U.K. title, The Outsider, only serves to confuse readers even more. Meursault is the archetype of a middle-class man. He works as a clerk, rents an apartment and draws no attention to himself. He is, if anything, very ordinary. Meusault might even be boring. He lacks deep convictions and passion. If he is estranged from any aspect of French society, it is religion--he does not believe in the symbols and the rituals of faith. Estranged? "Cela m'est égal." Along with the title, Camus took care in naming the main character. Meursault's name is symbolic of the Mediteranean sea. Mer mean "sea" and soliel is French for "sun." The sea and the sun meet at the beach, where Meursault's defining actions occur. Meusault is an anti-hero. His only redeeming quality is his honesty, no matter how absurd. In existential terms, he is "authentic" to himself. Meusault does not believe in God, but he cannot lie because he is true to himself. This inability to falsify empathy ultimately condemns him. Meursault has faith only in what he, himself, can see or experience with his other senses. He is not a philosopher, a theologian or a deep thinker. Meursault exists as he is, not trying to be anything more or less than himself. Why did Camus' readers recognize Meursault as a plausible character? After two World Wars and much suffering, many people came to live life much as Meursault does. Or at least they tried to do so. These people lost the will to do more than exist. There was no hope and no desire. The only goal for many people was simple survival. Even then, the survival seemed empty and hollow. We learn how empty Meursault's existence is through his relationships. He is not close to his mother; we learn he does not cry at her funeral. He does not seem close to his lover, Marie Cardona. Of her, Meursault states, "To me, she was only Marie." There is no passion is Meursault's words or in his life. What sets Camus apart from many existentialists and modern philosophers in general is his acceptance of contradiction. Yes, Camus wrote, life is absurd and death renders life meaningless--for the individual. But mankind and its societies are larger than any one individual person.
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Summary: the truth
Review: this book shows the truth of the world...that it is absolutely absurd. we must all acknowledge it first to start to make any real sense of it all. camus is a genius along with sartre.
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Summary: Jessica's thoughts on The Stranger
Review: When first assigned to read this book I wasn't happy. But after reading it I appreciated its realist philosophy and the way Camus used beautiful language to express the unemotional state of Muersault's mind. I would definately recommend this book if you are willing to have an open mind and see the message of this book, which is live your life now don't wait. You should also examine Marie using feminist analysis. I found she doesn't have a voice and you have to create her yourself using descriptions from the book but also try to see her point of view.
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Summary: A depressing but shockingly accurate glimpse of society
Review: The Stranger was an extremely thought provoking book, and it applies to every society at any time, thus is as powerful today in America as it was in France 50 years ago. Basically the book is about a man in Algiers who is killed by his society for his social abnormalities. He commited murder, but was executed for not crying at his mother's funeral. To me this book was a painful reflection of the mold that societies try to force people into, and the way the society views people who don't fit the mold. I felt this book was extremely powerful because of how it shows the cruelty that society can inflict to people who don't fit in.
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Summary: Strangely Depressing
Review: While I loved the book and its concepts, it left me feeling rather depressed about the characters. It was written well and really got the author's philisophical views across, developing characters well.
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Summary: Life and Nothing But...
Review: THE STRANGER is one of those timeless classics sure to disturb new readers well into the next millenium. Albert Camus is dealing with truth here, and truth, like life, is not for everyone. And neither is this book. I wouldn't have it any other way. Camus' pitifully honest anti-hero Meursault finds himself on the wrong end of French justice following a carefully plotted train of carelessly indifferent but seemingly innocent decisions culminating in one senseless murder that is the real mystery of the novel. Why did he do it? Who is Monsieur Meursault, really? Naturally, the reason supplied by the author is strongly provocative and certainly unsatisfactory for most if not all. The writing is terse, economic, exact. A wonder, really. Readers should note what is said just as well as what is. This book did what few books can. I was left in a state of aesthetic arrest, neither drawn to nor repulsed by story or character, a sort of neutral zone where all fear and loathing have been replaced by pure wonder--much like Meursault himself. THE STRANGER only confirms for me what I have always suspected: in the hands of a master, writing is the highest form of art. What Camus achieves in a few pages most modern authors would spend chapters doing.
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Summary: Makes you want to think...
Review: Personally, I had to read this book for an ENglish class that I needed to graduate with. A friend in telling me about the book implied that the guy was a selfish so and so, and when I read it, I felt that Mersault just didn't care one way or the other what he wanted.Just because he didn't cry at his own mother's funeral, they handed him a harsh sentence?? No previous crimes, no rap sheet, alright, he took a life, one life that didn't have nothing to do with him except for his friend making him do it. Let's look at this. The guy had no goals, no ambitions, no nothing. He has a girl, but it don't mean a thing to him one way or the other. Does that make him amoral?? I feel it makes him irresponsible,unfeeling, and aimless.
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Summary: This book will upset you--so it's great art
Review: I read this novel twice. The power of this fiction is the character keeps heading toward disaster and you want to pull him back to a safe path but you cannot. And that is quite frustrating. That is what makes for great fiction--something that upends the emotions. The novel is set in Camus's native Algeria. He is better know as one of the founder's of the existentialism philosophy which I cannot understand and, consequently, cannot explain. I also read halfway through Camu's autobiographical novel "The First Man" and readl all of his world war II "Troubled Sleep".
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Summary: Short but boring
Review: The Stranger by Albert Camus is an interesting novel about Monsieur Meursalt, an ordinary man who goes through his mother's death, killing a man, and going to prison. I think this novel was fast-paced and easy to read, but it was not very exciting. I would not recommend reading The Stranger. I did not find it exhilerating. However, Albert Camus developed his characters very well. Overall, this book was boring, and I do not suggest reading it.
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Summary: Espléndido
Review: Un libro magnífico, que retrata aquellos excepcionalmente las sensaciones de aquellos que nunca se dejaron llevar demasiado por lo que dicta la sociedad.
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