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Cover of The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Stranger

Albert Camus

  • 143 pages · about 2 hours
  • First published 1942
  • 468 editions
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1 About this book

The Stranger (French: L'Étranger, lit. 'The Foreigner'), also published in English as The Outsider, is a 1942 novella written by French author Albert Camus. The first of Camus's novels to be published, the story follows Meursault, an indifferent man in French Algeria, who, weeks after his mother's funeral, kills an unnamed Arab man in Algiers.

The story is divided into two parts, presenting Meursault's first-person narrative before and after the killing. Camus completed the initial manuscript by May 1941, with revisions suggested by André Malraux, Jean Paulhan, and Raymond Queneau that were adopted in the final version.

The original French-language first edition of the novella was published on 19 May 1942, by Gallimard, under its original title; it appeared in bookstores from that June but was restricted to an initial 4,400 copies, so few that it could not be a bestseller.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Murder
  • Medicine
  • Adventure
  • Action and adventure fiction
  • Trials (Murder)
  • Classics
  • Romance literature
  • Happiness

2 What to expect

A short, detached novel about Meursault, who kills a man on an Algerian beach and faces trial. Told in a flat, cool voice; a classic of existentialism.

Good for readers who want: a classic, philosophy in a novel, and a short read.

3 About Albert Camus

1913–1960

Albert Camus ( kam-OO; French: ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, writer, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history, and the first laureate in literature born in Africa. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall and The Rebel. Camus was born in French Algeria to pied-noir parents.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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