The Stranger By Albert Camus - 1st/2nd

Description: The Stranger By Albert Camus - 1st/2nd - Knopf 1946 The Stranger by Albert Camus Knopf © 1946 First Edition, Second Printing Written in 1946, French author Albert Camus's compelling and troubling tale of a disaffected, amoral young man has earned a durable popularity in part because it reveals so vividly the anxieties of its time; alienation, the fear of anonymity, and spiritual doubt. Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957, 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 and hopeless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Imprisoned and eventually brought to trial for his crime, it becomes apparent his crime is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed, so much as it is his deficient character. The trial's proceedings are absurd, a parsing of incidental trivialities and 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 case of resignation; however, his confrontation with "the gentle indifference of the world" remains as compelling as it was when Camus first recounted it. Seller’s Note: Book is square and tight. Cloth covers and the book’s pages are still bright and have aged well. Protected by a beautiful facsimile dust jacket. I believe this is the cheapest available “First Edition, Second Printing” on the internet.

Price: 600 USD

Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

End Time: 2024-09-30T07:28:15.000Z

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