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by: Albert Camus
List Price: $10.95Amazon.com's Price: $8.76 You Save: $2.19 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 843.914
EAN: 9780679720201
ISBN: 0679720200
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 144
Publication Date: March 13, 1989
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: March 13, 1989
Sales Rank: 1697
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed 'the nakedness of man faced with the absurd.' First published in 1946; now in a new translation by Matthew Ward.
Amazon.com Review:
The Stranger is not merely one of the most widely read novels of the 20th century, but one of the books likely to outlive it. Written in 1946, Camus's compelling and troubling tale of a disaffected, apparently amoral young man has earned a durable popularity (and remains a staple of U.S. high school literature courses) in part because it reveals so vividly the anxieties of its time. Alienation, the fear of anonymity, spiritual doubt--all could have been given a purely modern inflection in the hands of a lesser talent than Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957 and was noted for his existentialist aesthetic. The remarkable trick of The Stranger, however, is that it's not mired in period philosophy.
The plot is simple. A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. The trial's proceedings are absurd, a parsing of incidental trivialities--that Meursault, for instance, seemed unmoved by his own mother's death and then attended a comic movie the evening after her funeral are two ostensibly damning facts--so that the eventual sentence the jury issues is both ridiculous and inevitable.
Meursault remains a cipher nearly to the story's end--dispassionate, clinical, disengaged from his own emotions. 'She wanted to know if I loved her,' he says of his girlfriend. 'I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't.' There's a latent ominousness in such observations, a sense that devotion is nothing more than self-delusion. It's undoubtedly true that Meursault exhibits an extreme of resignation; however, his confrontation with 'the gentle indifference of the world' remains as compelling as it was when Camus first recounted it. --Ben Guterson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Honest.
This book, at first, seems plain. The simplicity and clarity of the writing is what makes the book unique. A man does this and that, describes what is, objectively, and goes about his life. He is detached, content, accepting, in touch with life as it is and doesn't taint existence with novel interpretations. Rather, he doesn't interpret anything. He is never swayed by what he views as pointless, although he does look for reason in what others are passionate about. He admits that he has considered ... Read More
Rating: - interesting
I am writing my report about a book called The Strangers. The Strangers setting is based a long time ago in France and it is narrated by Monsieur Maersault, reflecting on the end of his life. He is a man who keeps to himself and rarely shows emotion or that he cares about anyone or anything except Marie, and he lives in an apartment-like complex where he keeps to himself and has a feeling he is being followed. His close friends are Raymond, Mason and Marie. Maersault also has a friend, Secile, ... Read More
Rating: - Shocking in its Simplicity
The Stranger is one of those nobel-prize-winnnig books you see mentioned every now and then, but you don't know if you'll really ever read it yourself. It's such a simple story, but it's so profound and thought-provoking. Basically, a guy kills another guy in self defense and goes to trial over it. That's really all there is to the story. But what makes it so thought-provoking is the personality of the guy. He sends his mother to a nursing home, doesn't cry at her funeral, smokes a cigarette and drinks a cup ... Read More
Rating: - One of the best books ever written.
I was told by a really good friend of mine to read this book. Looking in a bookstore on vacation, I came across it. It was cheap so I bought it, not really knowing anything about the story or what I was getting into. But I trust my friend's judgment, so I went ahead and read all of 'The Stranger' this afternoon. WOW is all I can say. The language and storytelling is so simple, so effective, that I got wrapped up in the world that Camus was engaging me in.
It reads like Salinger's 'The Catcher in ... Read More
Rating: - American translation brings out stylistic subtleties
(This is a review of the Matthew Ward translation; black an dwhite cover)
This is a newish translation, done by an American rather than the British translation that had previously been the only English version of this French classic. It seems Camus was heavily influenced by American literature of the period -- Hemmingway, Faulkner and others -- and had written The Stranger, the first half especially, to reflect those stylistic sensibilities. The translator argues in his forward that much of that ... Read More
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