Albert Camus' The Stranger

The Stranger by Albert Camus, published in 1942, is also a very short novel. To anyone who has not read this book, I would highly recommend it. Albert Camus is famous for only a few works, all of which are worth your time. He has: The Plague, The Fall, The Stranger, and a collection of short stories called Exile and the Kingdom. He also wrote a couple of well known essays: The Rebel, and The Myth of Sisyphus. These have all been translated, mind you; Camus wrote in French. . .because he was French, born in Algeria though, where the novel is set.

I would recommend all three of these novels, as well as the collection of short stories. None of the four books are very long. The Stranger is about a man who really has a problem finding any kind of meaning in life. Camus' philosophy, though, personified by Meursault, is coldly comforting. Read it and you will know what I mean. Honestly, this book takes about 2-3 hours to read, total. . .if that. In the mean time here is a funny little story from within the novel:

"One day, when inspecting my straw mattress, I found a bit of newspaper stuck to its underside. The paper was yellow with age, almost transparent, but I could still make out the letter print. It was the story of a crime. The first part was missing, but I gathered that its scene was some village in Czechoslovakia. One of the villagers had left his home to try his luck abroad. After twenty-five years, having made a fortune, he returned to his country with his wife and child. Meanwhile his mother and sister had been running a small hotel in the village where he was born. He decided to give them a surprise and, leaving his wife and child in another inn, he went to stay at his mother's place, booking a room under an assumed name. His mother and sister completely failed to recognize him. At dinner that evening he showed them a large sum of money he had on him, and in the course of the night they slaughtered him with a hammer. After taking the money they flung the body into the river. Next morning his wife came and, without thinking, betrayed the guest's identity. His mother hanged herself. His sister threw herself into a well. I must have read that story thousands of times. In one way it sounded most unlikely; in another, it was plausible enough. Anyhow, to my mind, the man was asking for trouble; one shouldn't play fool tricks of that sort."