The Outsider - Albert Camus

I first read this book about 12 years ago when I was desperately trying to appear to be a worldly intellect. Instead, I am sure I came across as more of a pretentious twit. I picked it up again over the weekend when I was looking for something to read in the bath. At 31 years old, the book hit an entirely different tone this time. Author: Albert Camus Original date of Publish: 1942 Genre: Fiction No of Pages: 117 RRP: £8.99 Amazon Price: £6.74 ***What The Outsider is about*** Meursault is a relatively solitary man who for whatever reason does not show or express emotions in a conventional manner. The novel ...  Read the complete review

BACKGROUND: ‘In our society,’ wrote Albert Camus, ‘any man who doesn’t cry at his mother’s funeral is liable to be condemned to death.’ This may seem a bewilderingly dramatic, almost self-indulgent sort of assertion, but it is one which Camus brought to life in The Outsider, and to frankly devastating effect. The Outsider has become something of a cult classic over the years, especially in undergraduate circles. It inspired The Cure’s ‘Killing an Arab’, a song which attracted a degree of controversy when it was (wrongly) assumed to advocate racial violence. The Outsider itself has also been subject to an array of assumptions and misconceptions, particularly with regards ...  Read the complete review

The Outsider is the stunning story of the life and guiding principles of its main character, Meursault. Through his reaction to his mother's death and the following year, we learn about a man whose view of the world is not shared by society, and so who is persecuted by that world. The story is written in an oddly direct manner reminiscent of Meursault's own philosophies, and although it makes it a tougher read, it adds massively to the poignancy of the final chapter. Meursault is a single man, living alone in an apartment on the outskirts of Algiers. We are first introduced to him the day he finds out his mother has died in the care home he paid for ...  Read the complete review

Written in 1942 by Albert Camus, The Outsider is a relatively short story that focuses on the life of Meursault, a young man living in French Algiers. Through his protagonist (a word used in its loosest sense here), Camus explores the absurdity of social norms in the face of an indvidual who is unblinkingly honest and perfunctory in his actions. From the reader's perspective, initial reactions to Meursault are unfavourable. He appears as an uncaring and, at best, amoral individual, traits most prominently shown in his reaction to the news of his mother's death, one of annoyance at having to miss work rather than of sadness at her passing. Typical of ...  Read the complete review

Deciding on wanting to plump on atleast one classic to purchase and read recently, Camus' highly regarded novel 'The Outsider' caught my eye after some interesting whispers of the author's name, being tagged with this book, coupled with many good reviews for it, so I bought it. And glad I did. 'The Outsider' isn't a particularly long book, and I was kind of dissapointed at the length of it, but then upon reading you find that the length is apt as nothing but the story, no diversions, are in the precisely segmented two part book, and even so this is a book I found that was highly enjoyed in devouring slowly and evenly over a week or ...  Read the complete review