The Stranger (1942) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Meursault: A French Algerian shipping clerk; narrator and protagonist
• Marie Cordona: Meursault's girlfriend/fiancee. She was a typist in the same workplace as Meursault.
• The Chaplain: Attends to the religious needs of prisoners on death row
• Raymond Sintès: Neighbor and friend of Meursault, also involved quite heavily in his case and some odd dealings with women.
• Maman: Meursault's mother who was in an elderly homecare. It is notification of her death that begins the novel.
• Masson: The owner of the beach house where Raymond takes Marie and Meursault
• Celeste: Owner of a resturant that Meursault frequents.
• Thomas Pérez: Meursault's mother's companion in the nursing home.
• Emmanuel: Meursault's colleague.
• Salamano: Meursault's next-door neighbor; lives with a mangy Spaniel dog with whom he has a love/hate relationship
• The Caretaker/ the warden: a very small man, with gray hair. The caretaker at Mrs. Mersault's nursing home in Marengo.

Quotes edit see section history

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• “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.

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

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

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• 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.

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

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• 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.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Paris: Meursault's boss asks him if he wants to be transferred there
• Marengo Algeria: the city where Meursault's mother lives in a old-person's home and where Meursault travels to for his mother's funeral.
• Algiers: the capital and largest city in Algeria and is where most of the novel is set; is on the Bay of Algeirs
• 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

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

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Lo straniero (IMDb): Directed by Luchino Visconti, 1967
• The Treatment (IMDb): "The Stranger" is discussed in this movie.

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history