The Stranger (Camus novel)


L'Étranger is a 1942 novel by French author Albert Camus. Its theme and outlook are often cited as examples of Camus's philosophy, absurdism coupled with that of existentialism, though Camus personally rejected the latter label.
The title character is Meursault, an indifferent French Algerian described as "a citizen of France domiciled in North Africa, a man of the Mediterranean, an homme du midi yet one who hardly partakes of the traditional Mediterranean culture". He attends his mother's funeral. A few days later, he kills an Arab man in French Algiers, who was involved in a conflict with one of Meursault's neighbors. Meursault is tried and sentenced to death. The story is divided into two parts, presenting Meursault's first-person narrative view before and after the murder, respectively.
In January 1955, Camus wrote:
The Strangers first edition consisted of only 4,400 copies, which was so few that it could not be a best-seller. Since it was published during the Nazi occupation of France, there was a possibility that the Propaganda-Staffel would censor it, but a representative of the Occupation authorities felt it contained nothing damaging to their cause, so it was published without omissions. However, the novel was well received in anti-Nazi circles and in Jean-Paul Sartre's article "Explication de L'Étranger.
Translated four times into English, and also into numerous other languages, the novel has long been considered a classic of 20th-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its 100 Books of the Century.
The novel was twice adapted as films: Lo Straniero by Luchino Visconti and Yazgı by Zeki Demirkubuz.

Plot

Part 1

Meursault learns of the death of his mother, who has been living in a retirement home. At her funeral, he expresses none of the expected emotions of grief. When asked if he wishes to view the body, he declines and instead, smokes and drinks coffee in front of the coffin. Rather than expressing his feelings, he comments to the reader only about the aged attendees at the funeral. It takes place on an unbearably hot day.
Meursault later encounters Marie, a former employee of his firm. The two become re-acquainted, go swimming, watch a comedy film, and begin to have a sexual relationship a day after his mother's funeral. In the next few days, Meursault helps his friend and neighbour, Raymond Sintès, take revenge on a Moorish girlfriend suspected of infidelity. Meursault agrees to write a letter to Raymond's girlfriend, with the sole purpose of inviting her over so that Raymond can have sex with her but spit in her face at the last minute as emotional revenge. Meursault sees no reason not to help him, and it pleases Raymond. He does not express concern that Raymond's girlfriend is going to be emotionally hurt, as he believes Raymond's story that she has been unfaithful. While listening to Raymond, he is both somewhat drunk and characteristically unfazed by any feelings of empathy. In general, he considers other people either interesting or annoying, or feels nothing for them at all.
The letter works: the girlfriend returns on a Sunday morning, but the situation escalates when she slaps Raymond after he tries to kick her out, and he beats her. Raymond asks Meursault to testify in court that the girlfriend has been unfaithful. Meursault agrees and the two go out to a café. On their return they encounter Salamano, his curmudgeonly old neighbour who has lost his abused and disease-riddled dog, for which he maintains his usual spiteful and uncaring attitude. Both that evening and the next, Salamano goes to Meursault for comfort. During those meetings, he explains that he had adopted the dog as a companion shortly after his wife's death. Salamano mentions that the neighbours 'said nasty things' about him after sending his mother to a retirement home. Meursault is surprised to learn about the negative impression of his actions. Later, he is taken to court where Meursault, who witnessed the event while returning to his apartment with Marie, testifies that she had been unfaithful, and Raymond is let off with a warning. After this, the girlfriend's brother and several Arab friends begin trailing Raymond. Raymond invites Meursault and Marie to a friend's beach house for the weekend. There they encounter the spurned girlfriend's brother and an Arab friend; these two confront Raymond and wound him with a knife during an altercation. Later, Meursault walks back along the beach alone, now armed with a revolver which he took from Raymond to prevent him from acting rashly. Meursault encounters the brother of Raymond's Arab girlfriend. Disorientated and on the edge of heatstroke, Meursault shoots when the Arab flashes his knife at him. It is a fatal shot, but Meursault shoots the man four more times after a pause. He does not divulge to the reader any specific reason for his act or what he feels, other than being bothered by the heat and intensely bright sunlight.

Part 2

Meursault is now incarcerated, and explains his arrest, time in prison, and forthcoming trial. His general detachment makes living in prison tolerable, especially after he gets used to the idea of being restricted and unable to have sex with Marie. He passes the time sleeping, or mentally listing the objects he owned in his apartment. At the trial, the prosecuting attorney portrays Meursault's quietness and passivity as demonstrating guilt and a lack of remorse. The prosecutor tells the jury more about Meursault's inability or unwillingness to cry at his mother's funeral and the murder. He pushes Meursault to tell the truth, but the man resists. Later, on his own, Meursault tells the reader that he simply was never able to feel any remorse or personal emotions for any of his actions in life. The dramatic prosecutor denounces Meursault, claiming that he must be a soul-less monster, incapable of remorse, and thus deserves to die for his crime. Although Meursault's attorney defends him and later tells Meursault that he expects the sentence to be light, Meursault is alarmed when the judge informs him of the final decision: that he will be publicly guillotined.
In prison, Meursault awaits the results of his appeal. While waiting to learn his fate, either his successful appeal or execution of his death sentence, Meursault meets a chaplain, but rejects his proffered opportunity of turning to God. Meursault says that God is a waste of his time. Although the chaplain persists in trying to lead Meursault from his atheism, Meursault finally accosts him in a rage. He has an outburst about his frustrations and the absurdity of the human condition, and his personal anguish without respite at the meaninglessness of his freedom, existence, and responsibility. He expresses anger about others, saying that they have no right to judge him for his actions or for who he is, that no one has the right to judge another. It is hinted that the priest believed Meursault's appeal would be granted, but it is unclear if he is still of this opinion after the ordeal. Meursault is convinced of the universe's indifference towards humankind, and prepares for his execution. At night in his cell, he finds a final happiness in his indifference towards the world and the lack of meaning he sees in everyone and everything. His final assertion is that a large, hateful crowd at his execution will end his loneliness and bring everything to a consummate end.

Characters

In his 1956 analysis of the novel, Carl Viggiani wrote:
Victor Brombert has analysed L'Étranger and Sartre's "Explication de L'Étranger" in the philosophical context of the Absurd. Louis Hudon dismissed the characterisation of L'Étranger as an existentialist novel in his 1960 analysis. The 1963 study by Ignace Feuerlicht begins with an examination of the themes of alienation, in the sense of Meursault being a 'stranger' in his society. In his 1970 analysis, Leo Bersani commented that L'Étranger is "mediocre" in its attempt to be a "'profound' novel", but describes the novel as an "impressive if flawed exercise in a kind of writing promoted by the New Novelists of the 1950s". Paul P. Somers Jr. has compared Camus's L'Étranger and Sartre's Nausea, in light of Sartre's essay on Camus's novel. Sergei Hackel has explored parallels between L'Étranger and Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.
Terry Otten has studied in detail the relationship between Meursault and his mother. Gerald Morreale examines Meursault's killing of the Arab and the question of whether Meursault's action is an act of murder. Ernest Simon has examined the nature of Meursault's trial in L'Étranger, with respect to earlier analysis by Richard Weisberg and jurist Richard A. Posner. René Girard has critiqued the relative nature of 'indifference' in the character of Meursault in relation to his surrounding society.
Kamel Daoud has written a novel The Meursault Investigation, first published in Algeria in 2013, and then republished in France to critical acclaim. This post-colonialist response to The Stranger counters Camus's version with elements from the perspective of the unnamed Arab victim's brother and other protagonists. Daoud explores their subsequent lives following the withdrawal of French authorities and most pied-noirs from Algeria after the conclusion of the Algerian War of Independence in 1962.

Publication history and English translations

On 27 May 1941, Camus was informed about the changes suggested by André Malraux after he had read the manuscript and took his remarks into account. For instance, Malraux thought the minimalist syntactic structure was too repetitive. Some scenes and passages should also be revised.
The manuscript was then read by editors Jean Paulhan and Raymond Queneau. Gerhard Heller, a German editor, translator and lieutenant in the Wehrmacht working for the Censorship Bureau offered to help. The book was eventually published in June 1942–4,400 copies of it were printed.
Éditions Gallimard first published the original French-language novel in 1942. A British author, Stuart Gilbert, first translated L' Étranger into English in 1946; for more than 30 years his version was the standard English translation. Gilbert's choice of title, The Stranger, was changed by Hamish Hamilton to The Outsider, because they considered it "more striking and appropriate" and because Maria Kuncewiczowa's Polish-language novel Cudzoziemka had recently been published in London as The Stranger. In the United States, Knopf had already typeset the manuscript using Gilbert's original title when informed of the name change and so disregarded it; the British-American difference in titles has persisted in subsequent editions.
In 1982, the British publisher Hamish Hamilton, which had issued Gilbert's translation, published a translation by Joseph Laredo, also as The Outsider. Penguin Books bought this version in 1983 for a paperback edition.
In 1988, Vintage published a version in the United States with a translation by American Matthew Ward under the standard American title of The Stranger. Camus was influenced by American literary style, and Ward's translation expresses American usage.
A new translation of The Outsider by Sandra Smith was published by Penguin in 2012.
A critical difference among these translations is the expression of emotion in the sentence towards the close of the novel: "I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe" in Gilbert's translation, versus Laredo's "I laid my heart open to the gentle indifference of the universe". The Penguin Classics 2000 reprint of Laredo's translation has "gentle" changed to "benign".
The ending lines differ as well: Gilbert translates "on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration", which contrasts with Laredo's translation of "greet me with cries of hatred." This passage describes a scene that would serve as a foil to the prior "indifference of the world". In French, the phrase is "cris de haine". Ward translates this as "with cries of hate". Gilbert juxtaposes "execration" with "execution".
"Aujourd'hui, Maman est morte" is the opening sentence of the novel. English translations have rendered the first sentence as 'Mother died today', 'Maman died today', or a variant thereof. In 2012 Ryan Bloom argued that it should be translated as 'Today, Maman died.' He believes this better expresses the character of Meursault, as developed in the novel, as someone who 'lives for the moment', 'does not consciously dwell on the past', and 'does not worry about the future'.

Adaptations and allusions

Film adaptations/allusions

Direct adaptations