Just finished reading the famous novel “The Outsider” by the famous Albert Camus.
Albert Camus
Camus is a 20th century French writer, journalist, and philosopher who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1957. He was born in 1913 in the then French Algeria and grew up as a poor fatherless kid in Algiers. His famous publications include The Outsider, The Plague, The Fall, and numerous other books.
‘Camus could never cease to be one of the principal forces in our cultural domain, nor to represent, in his own way, the history of France and of this century.’ – Jean-Paul Sartre, in Camus’ obituary (excerpt from the Introduction section of the book).
The Wikipedia is a better resource than I am for other details. Click Here.
Camus’ writings gave rise to a philosophy called absurdism. Philosophy is not my area of expertise. However, the outside-the-trend insights in his writings are expressed in a very easily-understandable narration. The Outsider is itself the best example.
About the Book
Original title: L’Etranger (French).
Also translated as The Stranger by other translators. First published in 1942. Camus wrote it when he was 28.
A very small book; you can finish it in a few days, if not hours. Several translations are available. The one I read was translated by Joseph Laredo and is about 120 pages in A6 size.
Stuart Gilbert’s translation of the book in pdf.
The Outsider is often referred as an “existential” novel. However, Camus himself denied he was an existentialist.
Characters
Meursault: the protagonist. He is a French born and living in Algiers, Algeria. A young man who lives his own life. He thinks logically and has very little emotion within him. He has his own reasons for everything he does. His attitude is not easily accepted by the society – hence, an outsider.
Marie: Meursault’s girlfriend. A kind and beautiful lady who eventually wants to get settled with Meursault. She is attracted to him for the weird person he is. But at the same time, she is worried that this very nature of him might embarrass her someday.
Raymond: A neighbor man who befriends Meursault to overcome his trouble with his own girlfriend. Meursault eventually has to pay a very heavy price because of this friendship.
And there some other minor characters too. But I shall skip them!
Plot
The book opens with, “My mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know…” This is a very unconventional way to express a sensitive issue like mother’s death.
Meursault had admitted his mother to a nursing home facility in the countryside because he could afford time and money to keep her with him. He reluctantly goes as far as the old people’s home and does not show any interest to see his mother’s body. His weirdness of not showing emotions at the demise of his mother takes everyone in the facility by surprise. He further astonishes his neighbors by going to movie and getting drunk in the next few days. Every time someone tries to console him, he tries to explain that it is not the case, sometimes even frustrating him.
According to Meursault, there’s no use mourning at his mother’s death because she’d have died someday anyway.
Meursault develops a friendship with Raymond, his neighbor. Meursault is eventually dragged into Raymond’s enmity with his own girlfriend and her brother, an Arab. On a very hot summer day when Meursault and his friends are all having a good time at a beach, they encounter the Arab and his friends. After a few complicated events, Meursault ends up shooting a man killing him on the spot.
Motive to kill, he has none, but it’s the reflex to self-defend himself. It is also the blinding and blazing sun that has made him lose his balance.
In the days that follow, in the court, Meursault is portrayed as a freak (and hence, the outsider) for sending his mother away to an old people’s home. His indifference to her death is also taken seriously by the court. He vehemently tries to explain his point of view, which goes in vain. The court (which represents the society as a whole) tries to single him out on the basis of what sort of person he is rather than what crime he has committed.
I shall not divulge the ending though. You’d be disappointed at me when you read it. But I can promise you, the second half of the novel is very interesting. Meursault’s logic of accepting/denying the situation he faces, is something that insiders have hard time believing. And, an adamant man he is. It’s impossible for anyone to persuade him into doing something that he does not believe in. An example is his refusal to believe in the God.
In this book, Camus has portrayed the life a young and carefree man who has his own ways doing things. He has no grudges against anyone, but is somehow framed into a situation that he has no intention of getting into. The society criticizes and severely punishes him for not behaving and not acting as everyone else.
Like they say, सुनेको पोखराभन्दा देखेको पोखरा राम्रो !, there are far more aspects that have not been introduced here. I hope you read it for yourself. Happy reading !
Some five years back, I had written a brief criticism about Radha (राधा), a popular Nepali novel written by 