The Stranger

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Summary: Revolutionary tool for the human mind.
Review: Awesome! This book will make you reevaluate everything you have ever held as true. Your assumptions will either be reassumed or they will disintegrate before you and the text. Camus goes deep into the heart of things and takes a serious look at what is occuring. He shows you things you have never seen. The best part is that they have been there the whole time.

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Summary: Read more Camus
Review: Of course The Stranger is a brilliant novel, better than 99.9% of anything ever written, but readers should not think they know Camus because they've read it. I read it in English and French, and if you can read French don't bother with the English (Matthew Ward's translation is fabulous, but you'll get so much more from the French. And don't go anywhere near the Stuart Gilbert translation!) Anyway, the rest of Camus' work is so important also, notably "The Plague," an utterly betraying work of seminal brilliance, "The Fall," a mordant first person narrative seething with wit (Sartre's favorite), his novellas in "Exile and the Kingsom," especially "Jonas." Camus was also involved thoughtfully in world affairs, and the essays in "Resistance ,Rebellion and Death" are timeless and provocative, and Camus also wrote for theater. His "Caligula" is at the top of my list for the best plays of the century with "Endgame" by Beckett and Sartre's "No Exit." "Caligula" explores the phiosophical roots of tyrrany with insightful and clever banter and action. Finally, there are those brilliant larger essays "The Rebel" and "The Myth of Sysphus" to add to the list. Perhaps the most personal of his wrtitings if "The First Man," a semi-bitter and pensive evocation of a stark childhood, the manuscript of which was found in the car which Camus was accidentally killed in at Sens in 1960. "The Stranger" should never be seen as required reading for school, because by essense it is so much more than that, but people should also see that Camus was so much more than "The Stranger."

Rating:
Summary: Brilliance defined
Review: This is the single most brilliant work of literature (or art, for that matter) ever created by human hand. I'm refering to the book by Camus by the way; not the Amimorphs paper back that is apperently getting its reviews crossed.

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Summary: A Wonderful Book!
Review: I thought this was an excellent book. You really know what it's like to feel alienated from an uncaring society. By the way, I felt kinda sorry for Meursault in the beginning.

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Summary: L'Etranger was the most insightful novel that I have read.
Review: I recently read this novel in my IB Junior English class. Half of the class hated it, and the other loved it. I was among the latter. This novel opened up new doors into the world of existentialism for me. Meursault is both horrifying and fascinating in his complete lack of "morality." He blew open the hypocrisies of his society and our own.

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Summary: This is a Zen novel.
Review: Believe it or not, This book is exactly what Zen life is supposed to be. You eat, sleep, live your ordinary life, and then you die alone. Accepting everything as they are without agreeing or disagreeing, that is the key of this novel.

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Summary: Confusing and Contradictory
Review: Okay, I have read, analyzed, and written an 11- page paper on this book, and I don't have good things to say about it. The critics say it is a brilliant insight on the personality of the absurd, and they believe that Camus is amazing. Please. Camus could not decide what kind of character he wanted Meusault to be. One minute M. didn't care about anything, while the next he was absorbed in Marie's smile. I did not find the book insightful at all, and I honestly feel it is a waste of time to try to find deep meaning in it.

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Summary: If you are doing A-Levels - I suggest you read on.......
Review: OK, listen all you guys. I've read this novel in french and let me tell you - it isn't all that fun. I appreciate Camus' genius in writing such a fulfilling plot - if you like that sort of thing. If you want to make reference to another novel in any of your essays or you wish to read another book that's quite similar but, if I may add, not quite as good, read Mauriac's "Therese Desqueyroux". It's much more complicated but still worthwhile. Anyway, back to old Camus. I used to be really interested in reading French literature until I found Camus. It's all together quite daunting now. So, if you are intending to read this book as a form of leisure, I suggest getting your hands on a translation. GOOD LUCK! Oh and by the way, if anyone could offer me a second-hand copy of any translation of l'Etranger I'd be extremely grateful. Cheers folks! HAPPY READING!!

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Summary: This book represents a crucial step towards self-dicsovery
Review: I absolutely loved every page of this book. I have read it in both french and english. Camus stunningly captures the struggles of a young man Maursault, dealing with the pressures of conformity in French colonial society. Meursault is forced to death, for refusing to show remorse over the killing of a man. The paradox is vivid throughout, and typical of Camus' style: a man struggling with his emotions, against an institution that refuses to understand his "rationalizing". Indeed a magnificent piece of work!

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Summary: Only cause is Camus i will not give him 5 stars....
Review: Yeah, i have a great prejuice against Camus to deny this book the 5 stars. The book is brilliant, it describes in my concept a caracter without psycology. Its a guy that lost his hope and faith in the world ( i don't know the reasons) and that acts mechanically always. He is incapable of having a behavior practically, cause a behavior implies a psycological background. In fact Mersault is an ideal character cause a human being could never be mechanicall as Mersault is. I will not imagine why Camus wrote the novel, but Mersault, as a carcater lacking of humanity, show us exactly what we are, the biased of our perceptions and predjuices ( which is usually represented in a moral standard). I must apologize for my english, i am from Colombia.