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Overview

More than fifty years after Algerian independence, Albert Camus’ Algerian Chronicles appears here in English for the first time. Published in France in 1958, the same year the Algerian War brought about the collapse of the Fourth French Republic, it is one of Camus’ most political works—an exploration of his commitments to Algeria. Dismissed or disdained at publication, today Algerian Chronicles, with its prescient analysis of the dead end of terrorism, enjoys a new life in Arthur Goldhammer’s elegant translation.

“Believe me when I tell you that Algeria is where I hurt at this moment,” Camus, who was the most visible symbol of France’s troubled relationship with Algeria, writes, “as others feel pain in their lungs.” Gathered here are Camus’ strongest statements on Algeria from the 1930s through the 1950s, revised and supplemented by the author for publication in book form.

In her introduction, Alice Kaplan illuminates the dilemma faced by Camus: he was committed to the defense of those who suffered colonial injustices, yet was unable to support Algerian national sovereignty apart from France. An appendix of lesser-known texts that did not appear in the French edition complements the picture of a moralist who posed questions about violence and counter-violence, national identity, terrorism, and justice that continue to illuminate our contemporary world.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674073807
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 05/06/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 240
File size: 477 KB

About the Author

Albert Camus (1913-1960), Algerian-French novelist, essayist, and playwright, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.

Alice Kaplan is John M. Musser Professor of French and chair of the Department of French at Yale University.

Read an Excerpt

From Chapter Fourteen: Letter to an Algerian Militant


My dear Kessous,

I found your letters upon returning from my vacation, and I am afraid that my approval will arrive very late. Yet I need to let you know how I feel. Believe me when I tell you that Algeria is where I hurt at this moment, as others feel pain in their lungs. And since August 20 I have been on the edge of despair.

Only a person who knows nothing of the human heart can think that the French of Algeria can now forget the massacres in Philippeville. Conversely, only a madman can believe that repression, once unleashed, can induce the Arab masses to trust and respect France. So we now find ourselves pitted against one another, with each side determined to inflict as much pain as possible on the other, inexpiably. This thought is unbearable to me, and it poisons my days.

And yet you and I, who are so alike, who share the same culture and the same hopes, who have been brothers for so long, joined in the love we both feel for our country, know that we are not enemies. We know that we could live happily together on this land, which is our land—because it is ours, and because I can no more imagine it without you and your brothers than you can separate it from me and my kind.

You said it very well, better than I will say it: we are condemned to live together. The French of Algeria—who, I thank you for pointing out, are not all wealthy bloodsuckers—have been in Algeria more than a century and number more than a million. That alone is enough to distinguish the Algerian problem from the problems of Tunisia and Morocco, where the French settlement is relatively small and recent. The “French reality” can never be eliminated from Algeria, and the dream that the French will suddenly disappear is childish. By the same token, there is no reason why nine million Arabs should be forgotten on their own soil. The dream that the Arabs can be forever negated, silenced, and subjugated is equally insane. The French are attached to Algerian soil by roots too old and deep to think of tearing them up. But this does not give the French the right to cut the roots of Arab life and culture. All my life, I have defended the idea that our country stands in need of far-reaching reform (and as you well know, I paid the price in the form of exile). No one believed me, and people continued to pursue the dream of power, which always believes that it is eternal and always forgets that history does not stop. Today reform is more necessary than ever. Your proposals would constitute an indispensable first step and should be implemented without delay, provided they are not drowned beforehand in either French or Arab blood.

But I know from experience that to say these things today is to venture into a no-man’s-land between hostile armies. It is to preach the folly of war as bullets fly. Bloodshed may sometimes lead to progress, but more often it brings only greater barbarity and misery. He who pours his heart into such a plea can expect only laughter and the din of the battlefield in reply. And yet someone must say these things, and since you propose to try, I cannot let you take such an insane and necessary step without standing with you in fraternal solidarity.

Table of Contents

Contents Translator’s Note New Perspectives on Camus’s Algerian Chronicles by Alice Kaplan Algerian Chronicles Preface The Misery of Kabylia 1. Destitution 2. Destitution (continued) 3. Wages 4. Education 5. The Political Future 6. The Economic and Social Future 7. Conclusion Crisis in Algeria 8. Crisis in Algeria 9. Famine in Algeria 10. Ships and Justice 11. The Political Malaise 12. The Party of the Manifesto 13. Conclusion 14. Letter to an Algerian Militant Algeria Torn 15. The Missing 16. The Roundtable 17. A Clear Conscience 18. The True Surrender 19. The Adversary’s Reasons 20. November 1 21. A Truce for Civilians 22. The Party of Truce 23. Call for a Civilian Truce in Algeria The Maisonseul Affair 24. Letter to Le Monde 25. Govern! Algeria 1958 26. Algeria 1958 27. The New Algeria Appendix Indigenous Culture: The New Mediterranean Culture Men Stricken from the Rolls of Humanity Letter from Camus to Le Monde Draft of a Letter to Encounter Two Letters to René Coty The Nobel Prize Press Conference Incident Index
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