The Stranger (1942) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• d: Add a description of this character.
• Marie
• Meursault: The young narrator
• Monsieur Meursault: Main character.
• Raymond Sintès: Neighbour
• Maman: Meursault's mother
• Marie Cordona: Meursault's girlfriend/fiancee. She was a typist in the same workplace as Meursault.
• Raymond Sintes: A neighbor of Meursault who beats his mistress which causes a conflict with the Arabs.
• Masson: The owner of the beach house where Raymond takes Marie and Meursault
• Celeste: Owner of a resturant that Meursault frequents.
• Thomas Pérez: Maman's boyfriend
• Emmanuel: Mr Meursault colleague.
• Salamano: Mr Meursault's next-door neighbour.
• The caretaker: The caretaker at Mrs. Mersault's nursing home in Marengo.

Quotes edit see section history

show spoilers

• “I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.”

  Meursault

• “I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe.”

• “It makes little difference whether one dies at the age of thirty or threescore and ten - since in either case, other men and women will continue living, the world will go on as before. Also, whether I died now or forty years from hence, this business of dying had to be got through, inevitably.”

• “Marie came that evening and asked me if I'd marry her. I said I didn't mind.... then she asked me again if I loved her. I replied, much as before, that her question meant nothing or next to nothing - but I supposed I didn't.... Then she asked : 'Suppose another girl had asked you to marry her... would you have said yes to her too?' 'Naturally.'”

• “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: 'Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.' That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.”

• “He wanted to talk to me about God again, but I went up to him and made one last attempt to explain to him that I only had a little time left and I didn't want to waste it on God.”

• “She was wearing a pair of my pajamas with the sleeves rolled up. When she laughed I wanted her again. A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn't mean anything, but that I didn't think so. She looked sad. But as we were fixing lunch, and for no apparent reason, she laughed in such a way that I kissed her.”

  Mersault

• “I would listen to my heartbeat. I couldn't imagine that this sound which had been with me for so long could ever stop.”

  Mersault

• “"Why do you refuse to see me, the chaplain asked. I replied that I didnt believe in God. He wanted to know whether I was sure about that and I said that I had no reason for asking myself that question: It didn't seem to matter"”

  Mersault

• “Great tears of frustration and anguish were streaming down his cheeks. But because of all the wrinkles, they didn't run off. They just spread out and ran together again, forming a watery glaze over his battered old face.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• C'était d'ailleurs une idée de maman, et elle le répétait souvent, qu'on finissait par s'habituer à tout.

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• Tous les êtres sains avaient plus ou moins souhaité la mort de ceux qu'ils aimaient.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• le héros du livre est condamné parce qu'il ne joue pas le jeu.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• je lui ai expliqué que j'avais une nature telle que mes besoins physiques dérangeaient souvent mes sentiments.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• clarity, order, and permanence, but we find that our experience of existence is based on opacity, dispersion, and the certainty of our own mortality and thus ephemerality.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• plutôt que du regret véritable, j'éprouvais un certain ennui.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• Alors, j'ai tiré encore quatre fois sur un corps inerte où les balles s'enfonçaient sans qu'il y parût. Et c'était comme quatre coups brefs que je frappais sur la porte du malheur.*

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• J'ai répondu qu'on ne changeait jamais de vie, qu'en tout cas toutes se valaient et que la mienne ici ne me déplaisait pas du tout.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Paris
• Algiers
• Marengo

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• The Sun: Describe this theme.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Princesse de Clèves, and followed by My Ántonia.

Preceded by The Hobbit, and followed by The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Preceded by The Bell Jar, and followed by Speak.

Preceded by The Myth of Sisyphus, and followed by The Idea of History: With Lectures 1926-1928.

Preceded by The Edge of Running Water, and followed by Sleep No More: Twenty Horror Stories (Armed Services Edition R-33).

Preceded by Go Down, Moses, and followed by Conversations in Sicily.

Preceded by The Bridge on the Drina, and followed by In Cold Blood.

Preceded by The Magician's Nephew, and followed by Running With Scissors.

Preceded by A Farewell to Arms, and followed by Robinson Crusoe.

Preceded by The Bell Jar, and followed by Dead Until Dark.

Preceded by Thirteen Reasons Why, and followed by On the Road.

Followed by Remembrance of Things Past.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Albert Camus (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Matthew Ward (Translator)
2. Joseph Laredo (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PQ2605.A3734 E8335
• Dewey: 843.914

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Folio Society: 'I fired four more times at a lifeless body and the bullets sank in without leaving a mark. And it was like giving four sharp knocks at the door of unhappiness.’ Meursault is a young French–Algerian who leads an outwardly blameless life – going to work as a clerk, eating at a small local restaurant, swimming with his girlfriend Marie. One day, he shoots a man dead on the beach. The man was an Arab and an enemy of Meursault’s friend Raymond: yet there was no reason for Meursault to seek him out. Questioned by his lawyer, the magistrate and the prison chaplain, Meursault can only say that he killed the man ‘because of the sun’. He refuses to display any remorse. What’s more, he does not appear to grieve the recent loss of his mother. It is for this refusal to be a hypocrite, as much as for the crime itself, that he is condemned to be executed.

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Lo straniero (IMDb): Directed by Luchino Visconti, 1967

More Books Like This edit see section history