Reading Camus’s “The Stranger” with Ryken

The Gospel Coalition’s first series of “Commending the Classics” (where Leland Ryken guides us in a weekly discussion of Albert Camus’s The Stranger) is now underway.

In a previous post he explained why Christians should read Camus.

Today he introduces the book.

Toward the end he discusses the schedule of readings:

The format for our discussion will be a chapter-per-week schedule. The guides that I will post for each chapter are intended as a preview to reading and discussing the week’s chapter. This means that we will start our trek through the novel with the next posting. I will provide both analysis and sections titled “for reflection or discussion.” The interaction will take place by way of “comments” on this site. Responses to this week’s introduction are welcome.

There are six chapters in part 1 of The Stranger, and five chapters in part 2. So it looks like the schedule will be as follows, with a new post each Wednesday:

Part 1

Ch. 1, April 25
Ch. 2, May 2
Ch. 3, May 9
Ch. 4, May 16
Ch. 5, May 23
Ch. 6, May 30

Part 2

Ch. 1, June 6
Ch. 2, June 13
Ch. 3, June 20
Ch. 4, June 27
Ch. 5, July 4

He also includes a note about translations:

I end with a note on English translations of The Stranger. I first fell in love with this book in Stuart Gilbert’s translation (available from Amazon from third-party vendors). This is the translation that made the novel a classic of English-language literature. Its style sparkles with descriptive and aphoristic brilliance. Among more recent translations is one by Matthew Ward (Vintage); since it is available directly from Amazon, it will be the “official” translation for purposes of this discussion. I will manage the discussion in such a way that either translation can be used. I myself regard Ward’s translation of Mother as Maman to be unnecessarily distracting.