The Outsider by Albert Camus (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

By Bright Summaries

Unlock the more straightforward side of The Outsider with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Outsider by Albert Camus, which follows the antihero Meursault as he lives his life in complete disregard of social conventions and is led to kill by events that seem to be beyond his control. His refusal to lie or pretend to be something he is not in order to make others comfortable draws the ire of his fellow citizens, and his condemnation is due as much to his apparent remorselessness and lack of feeling as to his crime itself. The Outsider forms part of Camus’s so-called “Cycle of the Absurd” and is widely considered to be one of the most important books of the 20th century. Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, and influenced writers and philosophers around the world with his reflections on the meaning of existence and the search for happiness in an ultimately indifferent world.

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This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you:
• A complete plot summary
• Character studies
• Key themes and symbols
• Questions for further reflection

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• Language: English
• Publisher: BrightSummaries.com
• Release date: Oct 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9782806269140

Book preview

FRENCH WRITER, PLAYWRIGHT, ESSAYIST AND PHILOSOPHER

Born in Mondovi (Algeria) in 1913.

Died in Villeblevin in 1960.

Notable works:

The Outsider (1942), novel

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), essay

The Plague (1947), novel

The Algerian-born French author Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a Nobel Laureate and one of the major writers of the 20th century. He was a deeply committed intellectual, philosopher, journalist, playwright and novelist, and his reflections on the Absurd, which he expressed in a nuanced, sensitive and humane way, had a major impact on his contemporaries.

Camus was widely admired in spite of some occasional criticism, and his novels The Plague (1947) and especially The Outsider (1942) have proven influential throughout the world. He met an untimely death following a car accident in 1960.

AN UNUSUAL NOVEL

Genre: absurd novel

Reference edition: Camus, A. (2013) The Outsider. Trans. Smith, S. London: Penguin.

1st edition: 1942

Themes: the Absurd, sensuality, the sun, revolt, justice, injustice

The Outsider is Camus’s first novel, and was published in