Skip to content
  • home
  • author site
  • contact me
  • book reviews
    • HIGHLIGHTS
    • children’s
    • fantasy
    • graphic novels
    • historical fiction
    • literature
    • mysteries
    • nonfiction
    • science fiction
    • young adult
  • recipes

Hello and welcome! My name is Emma (I write fantasy under the name E. M. Epps). This blog features my Two-Paragraph Book Reviews. One paragraph from me. One from the book. Here's why I keep it short.

You are here: Home > Review: “The Stranger” by Albert Camus

Review: “The Stranger” by Albert Camus

Image Emma 12 July 2013

Thumbs up for The Stranger by Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward. Literature.

I liked this better than I thought I would; which is to say, I did not hate it. One thing I will say is that I think English speakers have been done an injustice by the title being translated as “The Stranger” rather than “The Estranged.” There are no strangers here; if you know upfront that Camus is painting Meursault as a man estranged from common humanity, the theme instantly makes more sense. The Stranger is a necessity if you are interested in Absurdist philosophy, or if you are currently attending American high school. Or if you were lucky enough to avoid American High School, but still have to talk to people who weren’t.

All day long there was the thought of my appeal. I think I got everything out of it that I could. I would assess my holdings and get the maximum return on my thoughts. I would always begin by assuming the worst: my appeal was denied. “Well, so I’m going to die.” Sooner than other people will, obviously. But everybody knows life isn’t worth living. Deep down I knew perfectly well that it doesn’t much matter whether you die at thirty or at seventy, since in either case other men and women will naturally go on living – and for thousands of years. In fact, nothing could be clearer. Whether it was now or twenty years from now, I would still be the one dying. At that point, what would disturb my train of thought was the terrifying leap I would feel my heart take at the idea of twenty more years of life ahead of me. But I simply had to stifle it by imagining what I’d be thinking in twenty years when it would all come down to the same thing anyway. Since we’re all going to die, it’s obvious that when and how don’t matter. Therefore (and the difficult thing was not to lose sight of all the reasoning that went into this “therefore”), I had to accept the rejection of my appeal.


If you enjoyed this post, please share it!
Posted in book review, books, literature, philosophy, thumbs up
Tagged French, notw
Previous Post: Review: “The Dip” by Seth Godin
Next Post: Review: “My Planet” by Mary Roach

Secondary Sidebar

Don’t miss anything!

The newsletter and all content on this blog is free, but if you enjoy them, please consider supporting my work by contributing to my Patreon.

Search the reviews….

My Books

Cold Sandwiches and All: A Romantic Comedy

Mrs. Fromish's Guests

The Interpreter's Tale: A Word with Too Many Meanings

The Portrait of Geraldine Germaine

You Made My Heart a Hunter

To Hell and Back Again

Tags

Ancient Rome art biography book review books children's England fantasy funny GLBT graphic novels health highlights historical fiction history horror humor Japanese linguistics literature London memoir mystery NetGalley neutral nonfiction philosophy photos poetry psychology publications recipe review romance science/nature science fiction short stories suspense thumbs down thumbs up travel UK Uncategorized writing young adult

Archives

Twitter

Tweets by @emepps

Obligatory Disclaimer Thing

E. M. Epps is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. (That's what they tell me I have to say. This is not a lucrative venture, but if you do decide you want to read one of the books I link to, and your neighborhood bookstore hasn't got it, then it would be simply lovely if you were to go to Amazon via one of my links. That may get me 10c or so and then if a bunch of you do that maybe I would get myself a cup of tea or something like that. If you're feeling nice.)

Copyright © 2021. Proudly Powered by WordPress & Inception Theme

Facebook Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com