From the Bookshelf of Philosophy…

The Stranger

Albert Camus

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Apr 26, 2025 Alga Aditya rated it it was amazing

One of the most influential novellas in the history of literature and the most popular work by the French-Algerian absurdist philosopher, Albert Camus. This is the first work of his that I have read and is highly recommended for those who want to explore Camus's work further. This novella is certainly very influential in the literary world due to its significant impact on writing style and the themes of absurdism or existentialism in novels.

I personally really liked and enjoyed this particular w One of the most influential novellas in the history of literature and the most popular work by the French-Algerian absurdist philosopher, Albert Camus. This is the first work of his that I have read and is highly recommended for those who want to explore Camus's work further. This novella is certainly very influential in the literary world due to its significant impact on writing style and the themes of absurdism or existentialism in novels.

I personally really liked and enjoyed this particular work of his. Why? Because his writing style is easy to follow, and the novella is quite entertaining with some of Camus's dark humor. While reading it, you can sometimes laugh. The novella follows the journey of a man named Meursault who returns to Algeria to attend the funeral of his deceased mother, but he does not cry at his own mother's funeral. Then, he stays there for a while until he goes to the cinema with his girlfriend Marie and goes on vacation to the beach with his friends, including Raymond. Then, one day, while at the beach, he wants to get some fresh air, and suddenly there is an Arab man who has just stabbed Raymond with a knife. Meursault doesn't care, and until he suddenly kills the Arab man. He is judged and imprisoned until the day he is sentenced to death. He accepts it wholeheartedly, as freedom and as a form of the world's absurdity and the acceptance of existentialism. On his judgment day, society only judges Meursault as a bad son because he did not cry at his mother's funeral; society does not judge Meursault for killing the man.

Camus criticizes society's mindset regarding actions, where society judges a person based on their concern for their loved ones rather than their actual deeds. Besides social criticism, Camus also conveys the philosophy of absurdism and existentialism here, where we are taught to accept life as it is and freedom.

Camus's writing is also light and easy to understand, so we can be entertained by the series of words he writes, not just learn philosophy through a novel's story.
...more

Like · see review