Thus each of us had to be content to live only for the day, alone under the vast indifference of the sky. This sense of being abandoned, which might in time have given characters a finer temper, began, however, by sapping them to the point of futility. (The Plague, page 63) The plot We’re in […]
All posts found when searching for camus
The Plague by Albert Camus (1947)
Posted by Simon on March 28, 2020
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2020/03/28/the-plague-albert-camus/
Albert Camus on Franz Kafka (1942)
In 1942 Albert Camus published his famous long essay, The Myth of Sisyphus in which he addressed the issue of Suicide i.e. Is the world so empty, pointless and absurd that we might as well cash in our chips? He takes a hundred pages or so to answer No, the basis of his argument being that […]
Posted by Simon on October 4, 2019
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/albert-camus-franz-kafka/
The Boxer and the Goalkeeper: Sartre versus Camus by Andy Martin (2012)
Martin’s savvy, streetwise, wordplayful book is a joint biography of the two great mid-twentieth century French writers, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. It’s told in a popular, punning, jokey style which is hip to the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll reputation of these two top thinkers and proceeds by the themes, ideas and associations of their […]
Posted by Simon on October 25, 2017
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2017/10/25/the-boxer-and-the-goalpkeeper-andy-martin/
Camus by Conor Cruise O’Brien (1970)
O’Brien (1917-2008) was Irish and had a long and varied career alternating between politics (Irish Foreign Office, United Nations, MP), journalism (editor-in-chief of the London Observer) and teaching (at universities in Ghana and New York). So he was well-placed to give an all-round assessment of Camus’s role as a novelist, playwright and above all, politically engaged […]
Posted by Simon on September 30, 2017
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2017/09/30/camus-conor-cruise-obrien/
The Rebel by Albert Camus (1951)
The logic of the rebel is to want to serve justice so as not to add to the injustice of the human condition, to insist on plain language so as not to increase the universal falsehood, and to wager, in spite of human misery, for happiness. (p.248) Camus was already one of the leading writers of his […]
Posted by Simon on September 25, 2017
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2017/09/25/the-rebel-albert-camus/
The Just by Albert Camus (1949)
It is 1949. War-torn Europe lies in ruins. Across Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe communist regimes are intimidating and executing their way to power. The Cold War between America and Russia is well-entrenched, epitomised by the Berlin Airlift, which began in June 1948. Which side should you choose to be on? American capitalism exploiting its workers, repressing […]
Posted by Simon on September 23, 2017
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2017/09/23/the-just-albert-camus/
Cross Purpose by Albert Camus (1943)
I can’t bear to hear you talking like that, about crime and punishment… (p.105) [Martha to her mother, Act 3, Le Malentendu] Apparently, Camus heard the story this play is based on while on a holiday in Czechoslovakia in 1936: When his father dies a young man, Jan,leaves home to seek his fortune. Years later he […]
Posted by Simon on September 22, 2017
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2017/09/22/cross-purpose-albert-camus/
Caligula by Albert Camus (1938)
‘This purity of heart you talk of – every man acquires it, in his own way. Mine has been to follow the essential to the end… Still, that needn’t prevent me from putting you to death.’ [Caligula laughs.] (Caligula p.58) Camus began writing a play about Caligula in 1938, completing a three-act version by 1941, and […]
Posted by Simon on September 21, 2017
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/caligula-albert-camus/
Books & Boots 