Camus' reputation as the suave, football-playing philosopher is as high now as it has ever been. He epitomises intellectual chic.The most autobiographical of his novels, it offers extraordinary and poignant insights into Camus' unusual upbringing.'Steeped in Camus' s affection for the Algeria in which he grew up...and the beauty of whose landscapes - its heat and light, its sounds and smells - he evokes with such sensuality' THE INDEPENDENTAlbert Camus (1913-60) grew up in a working-class neighbourhood in Algiers. He studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, and became a journalist. His most important works include
The Outsider,
The Myth of Sisyphus, The Plague and
The Fall. After the occupation of France by the Germans in 1941, Camus became one of the intellectual leaders of the Resistance movement. He was killed in a road accident, and his last unfinished novel,
The First Man, appeared posthumously.
The unfinished manuscript of The First Man was discovered in the wreckage of car accident in which Camus died in 1960. Although it was not published for over thirty years, it was an instant bestseller when it finally appeared in 1994. The 'first man' is Jacques Cormery, whose poverty-stricken childhood in Algiers is made bearable by his love for his silent and illiterate mother, and by the teacher who transforms his view of the world. The most autobiographical of Camus's novels, it gives profound insights into his life and the powerful themes underlying his work.
Albert Camus was born in Algeria in 1913. The works that established his international reputation include THE PLAGUE, THE FALL, THE REBEL and THE OUTSIDER. Camus died in a road accident in 1960 and is remembered as one of the greatest philsophical novelists of the twentieth century.
