The Stranger by Albert Camus Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Stranger
Book Review: A horrible but alert book
Summary: 5 Stars
Albert Camus describes a person who is completely isolated from the civilization. He doesn't have the sense of fear to death, and that's why he considers believing in God is bored and unecessary. He can't comprehend love, the most complex emotion of humans. So, the only thing bothers him at his mother's funeral is the heat of the sun, and he promises to marry his girlfriend only because he feels that it is okay to him. He doesn't have the sense of honor, humiliation or guilt, and therefore, he doesn't feel sorry for killing a man, either premeditated or accidentally. He could do anything that other people tell him to do if he feels comfort or it doesn't matter to him. You can't find any virtues or values in him except animal's instinct, biological function and his alienation toward the man's society. And naturally, this person can't survive. If he does not end up in execution for his crimes, he would be terminated by other tragic means. Acutally, it is not his fault. His existence in the society is just a matter of his bad luck. He does not belong to the society that is bound by moral and law but the savage life may make more sense to him. It is a extremely stunning book, but behind the fascination, there is a theme poisted by Camus: strip the armour of the civilization, a man is basically an animal. .Book Review: A horrible translation
Summary: 1 Stars
I have read a previous translation of The Stranger, and was deeply moved. My entire life was changed. The previous translator did Camus justice. Matthew Ward, with this translation of The Stranger, ruined the novel. Ward includes awful cliche and unintelligent description. Unfortunately this is the only translation currently in print in the US. If you are able to, please order from a forgein printer (sometimes printed under the title The Outsider) or consider searching for an out of print copy not translated by Matthew Ward.Book Review: A knock-out from the French Sphinx
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the best book I read that takes place in a warm climate since "The South Beach Diet," which was a little better. Not to knock this one.Book Review: A life of Truth
Summary: 5 Stars
Camus' captures the essence of existentialism through style and tone in this masterpiece of modern narration. M. Meursault's summarized tale raises questions of motivation, existance, religon, etc. This ambiguous narrator tests the context of a life so absurd that the novel will have you pondering for days! A halmark novel that deserves attention from any bibliophileBook Review: A magnificent book, pity about some of its readers...
Summary: 5 Stars
I have never felt the need to comment on reviews posted by others on this site, but I feel that Ted Rushton's review (below) of The Stranger is a disgrace and I am amazed that Amazon have seen fit to publish his offensive and ill-informed half-witted drivel. Anyone who can use the moronic term "surrender monkeys" in a review of a book should confine themselves to the latest piece of trash by Frederick Forsyth and steer clear of authors of the calibre of Camus, whose ideas are clearly beyond him.Even if Mersault could be seen as exemplifying the attitudes of the French people - and he clearly exemplifies nothing of the sort - Mr Rushton's anti-French tirade crumbles when you consider some facts he omits to mention. Firstly, Camus himself was active in the resistance during the war and also edited, at considerable risk, the clandestine journal Combat. Secondly Camus' The Plague is an allegory of occupation and resistance and, despite Mr Rushton's assertions to the contrary, exhibits considerable moral bravery. Then he should consider Sartre's Roads to Freedom trilogy, three books which concern themselves unflinchingly with issues of engagement, commitment and resistance.
In any case what philosophy could be more brave than existentialism, a philosophy that rejects the safety net of God and all other transcendental metaphysical fairy tales and insists that man is morally responsible for his own actions and the consequences thereof?
And by the way, as an Englishman who has travelled in France I can assure Mr R that the French do not hate the English and we - apart from a few tabliod reading idiots - do not hate them either.
The Stranger itself is one of the great books of the 20th Century: a masterful study of a man who refuses to conform to the false values and hypocrisy of mass self-assured organised society and ultimately pays the consequences for his bravery in refusing to "fit in". The court room scene is one of the finest pieces of writing you will ever come across, and the book as a whole is beautifully written, intensely moving, and ultimately uplifting.
Buy the book and ignore Mr Rushton's vile "review"