Albert Camus

[Anonymous No.19618542]

Which of his books is the best to start with?

[Anonymous No.19618555]

>>19618542
pick at random
start reading
stop posting

[Anonymous No.19618554]

>>19618542
None. Don't bother with him.
Read Kierkegaard, Kafka and Céline instead.

[Anonymous No.19618556]

>>19618542
Le premier homme.

[Anonymous No.19619238]

>>19618542
please dont, youngfag here, just read the stranger to start my senior year of highschool, absolutely putrid. Camus is a cynical and pretentious asshole and is not worth reading

[Anonymous No.19619250]

>>19619238
>Camus
>cynical
I refuse to believe there are people dumb enough on /lit/ to not get fucking Camus.

[Anonymous No.19619262]

>>19618554
How come?

[Anonymous No.19619333]

>>19619238
Funny, this is an incredibly pretentious comment

[Anonymous No.19619392]

>>19618542
TL;DR list:

1. The Stranger/The Outsider
1b. A Happy Death (not really essential - if you didn't enjoy The Stranger, you may as well skip it as it's more or less the same book. If you enjoyed The Stranger, give it a read)
2. The Plague
3. The Myth Of Sisyphus
4. Exile And The Kingdom
5. The Fall
6. The First Man
7. Caligula, The Possessed, other plays
8. The Rebel
9. Resistance, Rebellion, And Death
10. Notebooks

The Stranger/The Outsider is the best to start with, it's an excellent entry point. A Happy Death is worth reading after (though it was written before The Stranger) because it helps you to see Camus' progress as a writer.

The Plague is a good place to go next if you're wanting to continue with Camus' fiction writings. If you're looking to dive into his nonfiction, The Myth Of Sisyphus is a good place to start - it's where a lot of his most famous ideas are to be found.

After The Plague, Exile And The Kingdom is a wonderful small collection of short stories. You can easily plough through them in an afternoon or two, though I recommend reading them all twice or more. The Guest is easily my favourite story from the collection and probably the most well-known.

The Fall is something I'd leave until slightly later on to read. It's not a particularly difficult read, but it's not a great starting point. It can be quite jarring to some because, rather than being a typical novella with several characters exchanging dialogue and doing various actions, it's more like a monologue of someone speaking direct to you. Sartre particularly liked this one. The First Man was his final work, and unfortunately remains unfinished. It's not an essential read, but is worth checking out if you really like Camus.

His plays are quite enjoyable, too. Caligula and The Possessed are his most notable ones, both of which I recommend.

The Rebel is definitely worth a look if you're interested in Camus' political thought. There are various essays he wrote (most notably Reflections On The Guillotine, which covers the topic of capital punishment) which are worth checking out. Resistance, Rebellion, And Death (which contains ROTG) is a collection of his essays and is one of my favourite things he wrote, and is definitely worthwhile. His wartime notebooks are probably what I'd leave until last, just as the finishing touches to reading his work.

Happy reading, OP

[Anonymous No.19619651]

>>19619392
would definitely recommend the first man over the plague, let alone the rest. of course it's much a matter of preference, but it's such a lyrical, beautiful description of the life of a child caught between two worlds.

very unfortunate that albert died before he got to finish it, but i don't think he could have written any better about his life outside algeria

[Anonymous No.19620254]

>>19618542
Stranger

[Anonymous No.19620270]

>>19618554
>Celine
Why? He’s dull

[Anonymous No.19620383]

>>19620270
If you have no sense of humour, then perhaps he is dull.

[Anonymous No.19620392]

>>19618542
Myth of Sisyphus for the introduction to absurdist thought + cope, his fiction to remove the cope.

[Anonymous No.19620396]

>>19620392
P.S. After you remove the cope, you're ready to put on your big-boy pants and join Team Cioran.

[Anonymous No.19620598]

>>19619250
the stranger is basically bateman with even lower self-awareness and without the obsession over social norms. an empty shell of a man, clinging to the will to life because he isn't capable of comprehending that he is a monster (or maybe he's just too much of a coward to do so). life is absurd to him only because he is an absurd creature.

[Anonymous No.19621212]

>>19619238
I've read a lot of Camus. He is neither cynical (if anything he is an over bound optimist almost to the extreme of delusion) and is one of the most genuine, rather than pretentious, figures I've ever read. I used to have a picture called the trinity of books people don't understand which I would post here. The Stranger is on it. It seems like almost everyone who only reads this by Camus gets the entire thing arse backwards creating the impression of cynical pretension.


>>19620598
The character is not a stand in for Camus. Nor does his attitude for all but the very, very end of the novel count as positive in Camus' philosophy.

>>19619392
>His plays are quite enjoyable
I honestly hate his plays. What is it that you like about them?

>3. The Myth Of Sisyphus
I wouldn't recommend this unless you are really into Camus. The book is so pointlessly long. The entire thing could be condensed into 20 pages. I'd recommend to just read a summary. It's not like he actual presents good arguments in the work anyway.

[Anonymous No.19621413]

>>19618542
The Stranger.

If you vibe with it then go for the Myth of Sisyphus. It's a dense read but short enough where you can power through if you aren't used to reading philosophy.