The Stranger
(Albert Camus)
Meursault is a modest employee who lives in Alger in the 1930s. Of his
existence we know only the external elements that have come to perturb him.
The novel begins with a laconic sentence announcing that his mother is dead,
but Merusault doesn't become heavy with emotions, and refuses to say any
more than he feels: he is a stranger to this world. His life is a chain of emotions,
sometimes exalted -- the splendor of the sea and sun, the beauty of women --
and sometimes ordinary -- the boredom of a Sunday afternoon. He then meets
Marie, a young woman who wants to be loved as in a novel. Only, Meursault
doesn't cheat; he accepts to marry her but not to lie. He tells he that he doesn't
know how to love. The turning-point of the novel occurs on a beach. Meursault
kills an Arab with a borrowed pistol, simply because he felt threatened and
because the sun and sweat made him feel strange.
The second part of the novel follows the trial. There also, Meursault refuses to
say that he regrets his deed, refuses to say that he mourned his mother, and
this frankness causes him to be sent to the guillotine. The novel draws to a
close on the eve of his execution. Meursault, who is the narrator, remains loyal
to himself, and doesn't expect anything more than death, which for him doesn't
lead to any beyond.
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