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The First Man

by Albert Camus, David Hapgood (Translator)

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 · rating details · 1,963 ratings · 130 reviews

This final work by the Nobel Prize-winning author, unpublished until 1995, is an autobiographical novel set in Algeria, where Camus spent his early years.

Paperback, Large Print, 359 pages

Published March 1st 1996 by Thorndike Press (first published 1994)

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Aug 06, 2007 matt marked it as to-read · review of another edition

I think I'll be done with all of Camus' fiction after I read this.

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Nov 02, 2007 Núria rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2006, 5-favoritos, prestados, literatura-en-frances, siglo-xx

'El primer hombre' es la novela inacabada que Canys estaba escribiendo cuando murió en un accidente de coche a los 46 años. Se trata también de su novela más autobiográfica, porque habla ni más ni menos de un niño francés que vive en Argel y que está avergonzado de la pobreza y la ignorancia de su familia, una familia formada por una madre medio sorda y ausente, una abuela autoritaria y un tío sordo, y sin padre porque murió en la primera guerra mundial cuando hacía poco que Camus había nacido....more 'El primer hombre' es la novela inacabada que Canys estaba escribiendo cuando murió en un accidente de coche a los 46 años. Se trata también de su novela más autobiográfica, porque habla ni más ni menos de un niño francés que vive en Argel y que está avergonzado de la pobreza y la ignorancia de su familia, una familia formada por una madre medio sorda y ausente, una abuela autoritaria y un tío sordo, y sin padre porque murió en la primera guerra mundial cuando hacía poco que Camus había nacido. El libro se interrumpe poco después que el protagonista (Jacques) entre en el instituto gracias a una beca, cuando empieza la adolescencia, cuando las cosas dejan de ser o blancas o negras, y cuando Jacques empieza a descubrir su lado oscuro que hasta entonces había permanecido oculto. Pero Camus tenía planeado ir mucho más lejos, hasta la edad adulta, y gracias a las notas podemos intuir por dónde iban a ir los tiros.

Puede parecer que no vale la pena leer un libro que no está terminado, y además lo de la infancia de un niño pobre es algo que ya hemos leído miles de veces, pero Camus escribe como Dios y consigue hacernos creer que lo que nos está contando no nos lo ha contado nadie antes. Describe perfectamente lo que es ser pobre, tener que luchar por la supervivencia, no tener ninguna esperanza de tiempos mejores ni ninguna aspiración, excepto el seguir sobreviviendo, pero todo esto sin cargar las tintas, con una sobriedad y una sencillez admirables. Y por otra parte también describe perfectamente los pequeños placeres de la vida. Además, esto de leer algo que sabes que no fue preparado del todo para ser publicado satisface la curiosidad de cualquier voyeur. Es una delicia descubrir las pequeñas incoherencias (personajes que en un párrafo estan en una escena y en otro ya no están), los errores (personajes que cambian de nombre, incluso a veces se le escapa el nombre real de la persona) y las rectificaciones, que Camus iba haciendo en el proceso de escribir. Todos los libros necesitan ser interpretados libremente por el lector, pero uno inacabado aún más y es el sueño de cualquier nerd intentar adivinar cómo iba a acabar la novela a partir de las notas tan crípticas que se añaden al final, y que también permiten ver las diferentes posibilidades que había considerado Camus para desarrollar su historia.

El libro empieza cuando va a ver en Francia la tumba de su padre y decide intentar averiguar quién era realmente, para comprender en cierto modo quién es él. Pero nadie le sabe contar nada, ni su madre, ni su tío, que como los dos son medio sordos viven en su propio mundo, un mundo muy lejos del de Jacques y le cuesta horrores comunicarse con ellos. Aunque tenga amigos y familia, Jacques de niño está completamente sólo y, como no tiene nadie a su lado con el que identificarse y reconocerse, no puede construir su identidad. Está el maestro de escuela, pero cuando entra en el instituto desaparece de su vida. Así que todo empeora cuando entra al instituto, porque allí no puede hablar de su familia (de la que se avergüenza), pero en casa tampoco puede hablar del instituto (porque no entenderían nada). Así, empieza a vivir en dos mundos totalmente opuestos sin pertenercer a ninguno, sin pertenecer a ninguna parte. Y aquí se termina el libro. Probablemente Jacques hubiera seguido creciendo y seguido sintiéndose dividido y sin encajar ninguna parte hasta que... vete tú a saber.
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Jul 04, 2009 Edward rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some of my favorite quotes:

-“There are people who vindicate the world, who help others live just by their presence” (35).

-“There is a terrible emptiness in me, an indifference that hurts” (36).
-“…dependence and necessity remain, and that is not far from resembling love” (222).
-“her son, endlessly, watched her in the shadows with a lump in his throat, staring at her thin bent back, filled with an obscure anxiety in the presence of adversity he could not understand” (228).
-“She embraced him, and t...more Some of my favorite quotes:

-“There are people who vindicate the world, who help others live just by their presence” (35).

-“There is a terrible emptiness in me, an indifference that hurts” (36).
-“…dependence and necessity remain, and that is not far from resembling love” (222).
-“her son, endlessly, watched her in the shadows with a lump in his throat, staring at her thin bent back, filled with an obscure anxiety in the presence of adversity he could not understand” (228).
-“She embraced him, and then, having let go of him, she looked at him and took him again in her arms to kiss him once more, as if she had measured in herself all the love she had or could express and found that one measure was still missing” (55-6).
-“It was not for mastery of the earth or the priviledges of wealth and leasure that these unexpected nationalists were contending with other nationalists: it was for the priviledge of servitude” (257).

-“To begin with, poor people’s memory is less nourished than that of the rich; it has fewer landmarks in space because they seldom leave the place where they live, and fewer reference points in time throughout their lives that are gray and featureless. Of course there is the memory of the heart that they say is the surest kind, but the heart wears out with sorrow and labor, it forgets sooner under the weight of fatigue.
-“Remembrance of things past is just for the rich. For the poor it only marks the faint traces on the path to death. And besides, in order to bear up well, one must not remember too much, but rather stick close to the passing day, hour by hour…” (my bold, 80).
-“No one can imagine the pain I’ve suffered… They honor men who do great things. But they should honor even more those who, in spite of what they are, have been able to restrain themselves from committing the worst crimes. Yes, honor me.” (295).
-“when the soul suffers too much, it develops a taste for misfortune…” (296).
-“ Those who arose love, even if it is disappointed, are princes who make the world worthwhile” (298).

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Oct 28, 2012 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, france-fic-lit, historical-fiction, algeria-fic-lit

This manuscript was unfinished upon the untimely death of its famous author. The work is of value for its autobiographical content (Camus's youth has little other documentation) and because it shows the process of creating literature.

The edition I read, Knoph/Borzoi 1995, has sample pages of Camus's handwritten manuscript on both the front and back covers. Most pages have translator notes signaling alternative word choices, places of illegible text, places of blank manuscript, etc. There is a se...more This manuscript was unfinished upon the untimely death of its famous author. The work is of value for its autobiographical content (Camus's youth has little other documentation) and because it shows the process of creating literature.

The edition I read, Knoph/Borzoi 1995, has sample pages of Camus's handwritten manuscript on both the front and back covers. Most pages have translator notes signaling alternative word choices, places of illegible text, places of blank manuscript, etc. There is a section called "Interleaves" which has margin notes or separate pages with possible ideas, bits of text, or dialog that might have been included (or discarded) in the finished work. "Notes and Sketches" has footnote type material covering alternative translations, background information and other material of interest to the reader.

This edition begins with an introduction by daughter Catherine (the name given to his mother in the novel) Camus telling the reasons for the long delay in publishing this novel. The incomplete nature of the work added to the political stands her father took would have made him an easy target for his critics.

How this novel would have developed had Albert Camus lived to revise and complete it we'll never know. We can see the shell of a great work in its wonderful prose. He would, of course, finish all the sentences and would probably move (or eliminate) some sentences, paragraphs or even episodes. In some places he'd probably add more context and include text and ideas from the "Notes and Sketches" section. There is work needed on the structure, for instance, while the novel is a flashback, too much of it unfolds without a lot of presence of the older Jacques looking back at himself. We cannot even guess at the content that was still brewing in the author's mind, not yet fixed in writing.

While the book cannot be fairly assessed on literary merits, it does give a good portrait of a life of poor Europeans living in Algeria after World War I. What stands out is the feelings of a young boy who never knew his father, how he absorbs the reality of his family's poverty and how he responds to a teacher, M. Bernard, who can be sadistic (the "sugar cane") and yet show his caring in wise and extraordinary ways.

In this draft manuscript with notes and the author's ruminations we see the craft of writing. Literature rarely "just comes" to its author. It is the result of discipline in structure, voice, word choice and pace. Here is a glimpse of the process.(less)

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Mar 20, 2012 Angela rated it 2 of 5 stars

Part of the "I have to read the books on my bookshelves before I donate them" syndrome... :)

I was very glad that I had read the foreword by Camus' daughter for this particular book. In the foreword, we are told this manuscript was found among Camus' items after his death. His wife held on to the manuscript for many years, not feeling right in publishing it herself. After their mother's death, Camus' children decided to publish the unfinished manuscript as written. The foreword explains that she...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Roger DeBlanck rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Camus’ final novel was not published until 1995, over thirty-five years after his untimely death at the age of forty-six. In the wreckage of the car accident that ended his life, Camus carried the manuscript of The First Man. He imagined the autobiographical novel as an epic that would chronicle a life similar to his own, from childhood to manhood, through the character of Jacques Cormery. Camus had completed approximately a third of the novel at the time of his death. What he captured in that s...more

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Oct 31, 2011 Graham rated it 4 of 5 stars

"The First Man," the unfinished novelized autobiography found in the wreckage of the automobile in which Camus died, is at first frustrating, riddled with inconsistencies and footnotes that spiral off in directions that may not be comprehensible to the reader. But underneath some of the surface imperfections lies a glimpse into the creative process of one of the 20th Century's greatest authors. The reader sees Camus' suggestions to himself, his sequential errors, and the moments in which he forg...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Gail rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was fascinated by this incomplete memoir, interrupted by Camus' untimely death. Camus'draft reveals a number of things at once: he was a splendid writer who could evoke place, character and emotion, most often using simple, precise prose. He had a great love for Algeria and for his family. Though unsentimental and distinctly unromantic, it's clear he saw positive as well as negative aspects to his family's impoverished circumstances and he felt his family was loving and supportive, despite the...more

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Jun 20, 2010 Erika Dreifus rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-ve-reviewed, golden-oldies-favorites, french-lit

Albert Camus was a forty-six-year-old Nobel laureate in literature when he died in an automobile crash on January 4, 1960. Found amid the debris was an unfinished manuscript, one which remained unpublished until it appeared in France as Le Premier Homme in 1994.

Why the delay? In a compelling introduction to the American edition, Catherine Camus reminds readers of the mood in France in 1960, when her father's moral stances—particularly his open criticism of Soviet totalitarianism and his advocacy...more

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Nov 09, 2009 Chris Watson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is Camus' last book, unfinished.

It was intended to be a great opus, covering pre-war Algeria, invasion and occupation in the Second World War, the post-war period and the Algerian war of independence.

There are a few asides to Algeria and France during the time of the Algerian War, but most of what he finished was the earliest phase of the story: pre-war Algeria, with the protagonist as a child growing up in a family of poor illiterates; learning to read and gaining a scholarship to the lyc...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reading-group

‘So, for years, Jacques’s existence was divided unequally into two lives between which he was unable to make any connection.’

In 1960, Albert Camus died in a car accident. The handwritten manuscript of this incomplete autobiographical novel was found in the wreckage. It was published, thirty-four years later, by his daughter Catherine. Albert Camus’s wife and friends were afraid to publish it at the time of his death for reasons Catherine Camus explains in her introduction.
‘The First Man’ is the...more ‘So, for years, Jacques’s existence was divided unequally into two lives between which he was unable to make any connection.’

In 1960, Albert Camus died in a car accident. The handwritten manuscript of this incomplete autobiographical novel was found in the wreckage. It was published, thirty-four years later, by his daughter Catherine. Albert Camus’s wife and friends were afraid to publish it at the time of his death for reasons Catherine Camus explains in her introduction.
‘The First Man’ is the story of Jacques Cormery’s return, at the age of 40, to Algeria, and his reflections on his childhood there. The novel follows Jacques’s life from birth to his years in the lycée in Algiers. The novel explores childhood and school, Jacques’s love for his mother and his search for a father who died during World War I. The novel may be an incomplete draft, in need of editing and further polish but it has its own raw power, with its insights into a happy but difficult and poor childhood. The novel is also about the colonial history of Algeria, and the relationship with France. Poverty and illiteracy have their own impact, on Jacques and his family, and on their interactions with the world.

‘To begin with, poor people’s memory is less nourished than that of the rich; it has fewer landmarks in space because they seldom leave the place where they live, and fewer reference points in time throughout lives that are grey and featureless.’
The lessons Jacques learned from his life included his ultimate disappointment at winning a brawl in the schoolyard: ‘And then he knew that war is no good, because vanquishing a man is as bitter as being vanquished.’ There is also his embarrassment at reading film subtitles aloud to his illiterate mother and grandmother at the cinema, and his joy when a public library opens near the lycée.

Those more familiar with Albert Camus’s writing than I am may see insights into his other works that I, having not yet read them, cannot appreciate. I read this for a reading group discussion and am moved by the power of the writing, and the realisation, by Jacques Cormery, of the power of literacy. There is a sense too that the acquisition of literacy, as a precursor to written memory, becomes part of an individual’s responsibility to society. Albert Camus may have been writing about himself as he collected thoughts and ideas for this novel but I doubt that he was only writing for himself.

‘And he too, perhaps more than she, since he had been born in a land without forefathers and without memory, where the annihilation of those who preceded him was still more final and where old age finds none of the solace in melancholy than it does in civilized lands.’

Jennifer Cameron-Smith(less)

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Jul 10, 2012 Agbonmire Ifeh rated it 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed seeing this side of Camus, it's a big departure from the heavy intellectual and philosophical materials he is famous for.

In this book we get to see the human side of Camus. His formative years, his childhood, his idyllic progression to teenage years. We get to see his love for his family, a deaf-mute mother, an overbearing maternal grandmother and other extended family.

Camus was able to re-awake some childhood memories I thought I lost. And that's the magic about a book about childhood...more

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Sep 25, 2010 فـــــــدوى rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

أغبط من عاشوا في النصف الاول من القرن الماضي الي ستيناته ...
فترة التقلبات و الثورات ..
وبزوغ الرؤى والافكار ...
أغبطهم أيضا لغنى الفترة بكثير من المبدعين ...الذين أتسمت أبدعاتهم بالثورة و النضج وتفرد كل منهم بفلسفة خاصه ...ورؤية تستحق الاحترام
ربما كان ألبير كامو من أعظم أفرازات هذا العصر
وروايته الانسان الاول (التي تعد أخر أعماله ) هي نتاج مخاض فكري عميق أمتاز بالوعي و تنقيح العديد من الافكار الطافية على السطح في هذا الوقت ...
الانسان الاول هي قصة طفل فرنسي نشأ في الجزائر و عرف أول ما عرف ان دولته...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Jeremy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary, philosophy, translated-from-french, auto-biography, review

This begins my Camus’ Centenary year (he was born in 1913) reading list. I plan on reading even more widely than I have of his oeuvre this year, and revisiting some of his works, particularly if there’s a new translation I have not read. On the 7th of November, there will be a celebration at my house.

Now, reviewing a rescued-partial-first-draft manuscript turned into a book is a different kind of thing to other books. When you hover over the fifth star in Goodreads, it says ‘it was amazing’, so...more

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May 10, 2011 Matt rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this is the last book camus wrote. i believe it was found, incomplete, in the car after his fatal car crash, but that could be completely wrong. it is basically an autobiographical story. it seems like a generic story that reflects on the life of the main character. it starts out with jacques as a grown man arriving in a town as his wife is about to give birth. it never comes back to this scene, but goes back to a visit he takes to france where he meets an old teacher of his and visits his fathe...more

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Jul 26, 2009 Robert Cooper rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nobel laureate Albert Camus left this autobiographical novel unfinished at his death in 1960, and for complicated reasons it remained unpublished until the mid-1990s. It reveals a Camus both different from and the same as the famous author of novels, plays and essays and co-founder of “French existentialism”: different, because this Camus is much more personal, more intimate, more descriptive; the same, because of his existential preoccupations.
This is a wonderful book, especially for someone...more

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Oct 08, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The manuscript for this book was found in the wreckage of the vehicle in which Albert Camus died in . It was incomplete and not at all edited . I am glad that his family put it together and allowed it to be published . I agree with Michiko Kakunati who reviewed it for The New York Times when he wrote "serves as a magical Rosetta Stone to Camus' entire career,illuminating both his life and his work with stunning candor and passion".
I never realized the poverty that Camus was raised in . This lo...more

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Mar 17, 2012 Haytham Lashin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

لو كانت الرواية كلها لا تحتوي إلا ع السطور القليلة التالية ، لكفتني
يقول الإنسان الأول ، ويقول ألبير كامي .. وأقول

"كان يشعر أن الحياه والشباب والكائنات تفلت منه ، دون أن يستطيع إنقاذها بشئ ، متروك فقط للأمل الأعمي أن تلك القوة الغامضة التي حملته لسنوات طويلة فوق الأيام ، وغذته بلا حدود ، وفي أصعب الظروف ، تلك القوة التي منحته بكرم لا يكل أسباب الحياة ، سوف تمده أيضا بأسباب لأن يشيخ ويموت دون تمرد "

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Apr 12, 2013 Colin rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have read two biographies, with the Todd preferred over the Lottman, and most of the fiction by Camus. The First Man was for me the most moving of his work. Camus had not finished The First Man when he died and it went unpublished for more than thirty years.

It is most certainly autobiographical and set during his impoverished childhood in Algeria. It is a very raw work, not yet polished with the skill of a Nobelist. But that rawness allows us to feel what Camus himself felt about his childhoo...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Tiffy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Too bad Camus did not get to finish his final book before the fatal car accident. The First Man is an autobiography of Camus' childhood years in Algiers. It follows the life of Jacques Cormery from birth to his teenage years at the lycee, and later as a 40 year old man seeking information about his deceased father. Some parts of the book were a bit slow, but considering this was his first draft, the book was very well written. All the main characters grow on you, as you learn more intimate detai...more

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Jan 11, 2009 Marie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn more about Camus and for anyone who enjoys his writing. The book was unfinished and in his daughter's introduction, reveals more of the writer than what typically appeared in a finished manuscript. Despite missing words, the writing is strong, centering on a few themes- Algeria, childhood, poverty and politics. Who else can write as succinctly and as empathetically as Camus (in first draft!), as in passages describing his family's outlook: "..th...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Rusty rated it 5 of 5 stars

Camus's fantastic posthumously published novel. Actually, the manuscript was found in the floor of the car in which he had his fatal accident.
Did you know that Michel Gallimard, the founder of the great French publishing house, was also killed in that accident. Moreover, in 2011 there was a rather interesting theory that Camus was actually assassinated by the KGB for his criticisms of the Soviet Union in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech? Ultimately, because of the circumstances of the trip, wh...more

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May 22, 2012 Saxon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Camus unfinished, final novel is rough in more ways that one. Throughout the book, notes from the editors mark up the page explaining where a word was omitted, sentences crossed-out and/or simply illegible. The First Man is also rough because it's the most frank and candid you will find Camus. In the preface, his daughter wrote that she felt that had he finished the novel, he undoubtedly would have masked the story to not be so frank and open. On the other hand, the fact that it was never able t...more

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Mar 27, 2011 Sherelyn Ernst rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a 5-star as far as style is concerned. Camus' writing is amazing. This memoir makes you feel as if you are right there with him in an Algeria and time in which all your senses are alive and quivering. I strongly recommend this if you love great writing--and it's short! I gave it 4 stars only because it seems incomplete--actually, it IS incomplete and was only found and published after his death. Thematically, I couldn't tell where he was going with it, but it didn't really matter. It was...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Travis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i'm typically not a fan of authors' childhood memoirs and i was a bit disappointed that it lacked more of camus' philosophy...although the few places where it starts to emerge are exhilarating (when he's talking about the harsh, expansive algerian landscape and the life of the 'first man') i thought the book was pretty thin thematically - who's to say how it would've shaped up if he'd been able to finish. i found this book was most valuable because the story of his formative years gives context...more

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Jun 11, 2007 Lorena rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: yes

Arguably my favorite book.

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Sep 04, 2012 Gary Christensen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very nice read. Perhaps not for everyone. Certainly recommended if you like Camus like I do.

A recent re-read of The Fall left me wanting and I would have left off Camus for a while if I hadn't read this work. By comparison, The Fall and The Stranger feel positively over-edited compared to this work and another of my favorites, A Happy Death.

The First Man is un-edited and posthumous. Interested as I am in the writer's process I am pleased to see notes in margins and the wealth of raw notes at th...more Very nice read. Perhaps not for everyone. Certainly recommended if you like Camus like I do.

A recent re-read of The Fall left me wanting and I would have left off Camus for a while if I hadn't read this work. By comparison, The Fall and The Stranger feel positively over-edited compared to this work and another of my favorites, A Happy Death.

The First Man is un-edited and posthumous. Interested as I am in the writer's process I am pleased to see notes in margins and the wealth of raw notes at the end. Camus wrote longhand in pencil. Remarkably restrained if you ask me and admiringly realized for a draft.

Some of the passages were so wonderfully written as to call to mind Proust. As far as plot goes, it's concerned with evocations of childhood tedium, neighborhood dramas and inter-familial pressures. There seems to be a tremendous amount of heart in here, on the journey from boy to man without a father against the backdrop of poverty and civil strife. Two letters reprinted in the endnotes are worth the price of admission.

"The Arab Question" is touched on and Camus appears to have great prescience in his sentiments. The occasional suicide bombing lurks at the fringes of awareness while the race battles of North Africa might have been cautionary tales for our own times were anyone paying attention. It appears to be a drama played out generation after generation. Surprisingly, he says little about religious differences. I find this telling when one considers the threat he's perceived to represent to organized religion.

Reading The First Man came at a particularly relevant time for me, having read two superb biographies, all of his cahiers, many of his works of fiction a couple of times each and philosophical works in the the context of some academic work. I feel like I found Camus, somehow, in The First Man. I doubt the reading would have been as gratifying were I approaching it with less background. Somehow, I also felt deserving of this view for having so many hours laboring over his works. Knowing him in this way would have likely colored my reading of his works. As it stands now, The First Man serves as validation for the admiration I've always had for Camus' work. The disarmingly simple sentences were hard earned. His broad cultural relevancy is legitimate. He appears to have become a man at the epicenter of transformative times, viewed from both sides of the Mediterranean at a time when the world was formed by military clashes and over-sized personalities. As a man, he never shied away from the big issues, contributing his talent and hours to moving the discussion forward. The same was true for the soccer-crazed, knowledge-starved youth but who'd have thought the boy -- sharing his fries in the sand -- would win the Nobel Prize? I found it charming Camus appeared to be as surprised (and grateful) as anyone else. He was certainly deserving.

The First Man adds to the Camus discussion language on the importance of education to one's trajectory in life, but among the most valuable contributions, I felt, is a lingering appreciation for the importance of the individual to the community. A grandmother, a teacher and an absent father helped direct the budding, native intelligence to a productive end. I think it's one of the lessons of the twentieth century. Taken altogether, The First Man adds much to my understanding. Okay, okay, it would be a diservice, I suppose, to not recommend it to others on its own merits. It's really well written and a definitive coming-of-age story. (less)

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Mar 27, 2011 Odyssey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-ce, philo-existentialism, fiction, french-literature, literature, on-nihilism, philo-philosophy

[notes up to page 216 lost]

"Later on, he would remember that incident when he came (truly) to understand that men pretend to abide by what is right and never yield to force." [216:]

"But chance is not the worst method in matters of culture, and, devouring everything indiscriminately, the two gluttons swallowed the best at the same time as the worst, not caring in any event whether they remembered anything, and in fact retaining just about nothing, except strange and powerful emotion that, over th...more [notes up to page 216 lost]

"Later on, he would remember that incident when he came (truly) to understand that men pretend to abide by what is right and never yield to force." [216:]

"But chance is not the worst method in matters of culture, and, devouring everything indiscriminately, the two gluttons swallowed the best at the same time as the worst, not caring in any event whether they remembered anything, and in fact retaining just about nothing, except strange and powerful emotion that, over the weeks, the months, and the years, would give birth to and nurture a whole universe of images and memories that never yielded to the reality of their daily lives, and that surely was no less immediate to those eager children who lived their dreams as intensely as they did their lives.," [247:]

"... a ravenous appetite for life, an untamed and hungry intellect, and ll the while an ecstasy of joy punctuated by the sudden counterpunches inflicted bu a world unknown to him, leaving him abashed at the time, but he would quickly recover, trying to understand, to learn, to assimilate this world he did not know, and he did assimilate it, because he seized upon it so avidly, not trying to worm his way in; he was willing to go along but would not abase himself, and finally he was never without a sure confidence, yes a certainty, since he was guaranteed that he would achieve everything he desired and nothing would be ever impossible for him, that is of this world and only of this world; he was preparing himself (and was prepared also bu the bareness of his childhood) to find his place anywhere, because there was no position he wanted, but only joy, and free spirits, and energy, and all that life has that is good, that is mysterious, that is not and never will be for sale." [279:]

"like a solitary, and ever-shining blade of a sword, was destined to be shattered with a single blow and forever, an unalloyed passion for life confronting utter death; today he felt life, youth, people slipping away from him, without being able to hold on to any of them, left with the blind hope that this obscure force that for so many years had raised him above the daily routine, nourished him unstintingly, and been equal to the most difficult circumstances-that, as it had with endless generosity given him reason to live, it would also give him reason to grow old and die without rebellion."[284]

"Nature keeps a great book in which she scrupulously records every one of the excesses we commit.' I must say that this wise advice has often restrained me when I was about to disregard it. So listen, try to leave a blank on the page reserved for you in nature's Great Book." [323-324:](less)

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Jun 19, 2011 Isabelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: french

I studied Camus in school, like all French schoolchildren. Apart from chosen excerpts that always pepper young readers' school anthologies, you tackle Camus in high school when you get to Existentialism in your history of French literature curriculum. Well, I remember clearly that I had liked Camus the best... I am not a fan of the Existentialist Posse, that is for sure... but Camus is different somehow, not sure if it the Algerian sun, the very modest origins... he is just so human, so vulnerab...more

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Sep 29, 2009 Lobstergirl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, fiction

This is Camus's unfinished autobiographical novel that he was working on at his untimely death in a car accident in France in 1960. (Supposedly the manuscript was found in his briefcase at the scene.) It's the story of young Jacques Cormery, who never knew his father - he died in World War I when Jacques was an infant - being raised in extreme poverty in Algeria by his illiterate grandmother and illiterate, nearly deaf-mute mother (she has a vocabulary of 400 words). It's a moving, poignant, lyr...more This is Camus's unfinished autobiographical novel that he was working on at his untimely death in a car accident in France in 1960. (Supposedly the manuscript was found in his briefcase at the scene.) It's the story of young Jacques Cormery, who never knew his father - he died in World War I when Jacques was an infant - being raised in extreme poverty in Algeria by his illiterate grandmother and illiterate, nearly deaf-mute mother (she has a vocabulary of 400 words). It's a moving, poignant, lyrical book (it was like a palate cleanser after the contemporary fic-piece of crap I had just finished) that stops abruptly, ending with several pages of Camus's notes and fragments. It is dedicated to the "Widow Camus," the mother he adored and thought Christlike - even though she never would have been able to read a word of it.

It's astonishing that a literature Nobel prize winner could have arisen from this sad, deprived life (although Camus portrays poverty as rich in certain ways - nature, the ocean, childhood friends, soccer, the senses all provide experiences of enormous wonder and value). Camus, who had a natural love of learning, and whose illiterate family recognized his intelligence, was incredibly fortunate to have a schoolteacher take interest in him (there was great mutual love between them and for a year this man became the father he never had) and urge him and a few other boys to apply to the lycée in Algiers, where he was accepted. The novel ends before he graduates from the lycée, although it moves back and forth in time so there are chapters where the 40-something Jacques visits his father's grave in France, returns to Algeria to visit his elderly mother, and it contains the wonderful letter Camus wrote to this schoolteacher after he has won the Nobel, thanking him, and the teacher's response.

The passages about his impoverished family life are wonderful. The family has no oven, so they prepare dishes and carry the pans to a store next door where the owner will let them use his oven for a few centimes. Jacques goes to the silent movies with his grandmother, who can't understand the subtitles so Jacques has to read them aloud, but quietly enough not to bother the other moviegoers. But the action happens too fast for her to keep up, so she can't really enjoy the movies, and ashamed of her illiteracy, she feigns having left her glasses at home. One day Jacques lies and claims a two franc piece that he kept for himself fell into the family latrine; his grandmother rolls up her sleeves and goes digging through the excrement for it. Camus is superb at showing and describing the most elemental emotions - the shame of poverty, the fear of being beaten at home and at school, the pining for a nonexistent father that no one can tell him much about, and mostly, the enormous love for a mother so closed-in on herself.(less)

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About Albert Camus

Albert Camus was an Algerian-born French author, philosopher, and journalist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. He is often cited as a proponent of existentialism (the philosophy that he was associated with during his own lifetime), but Camus himself rejected this particular label. Specifically, his views contributed to the rise of the more current philosophy known as absurdis...more

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