Albert Camus
Winner of the Franco-British Society Literary Prize 2015

Few figures of twentieth-century French culture carry such an air of romance and intrigue as Albert Camus. Though his life was cut short by a fatal car accident in 1960, when he was just forty-six years old, he packed those years with an incredible amount of experience and accomplishment. This new entry in the Critical Lives series offers a fresh look at Camus’ life and work, from his best-selling novels like The Stranger to his complicated political engagement in a postwar world of intensifying ideological conflict. Edward Hughes offers a particularly nuanced exploration of Camus’ relationship to his native Algeria—a connection whose strength would be tested in the 1950s as France’s conflict with the anticolonial movement there became increasingly violent and untenable.
           
Ultimately, the picture Hughes offers is of a man whose commitment to ideas and truth reigned supreme, whether in his fiction, journalism, or political activity, a commitment that has led the man who disclaimed leadership—“I do not guide anyone,” he once pleaded—to nonetheless be seen as a powerful figure and ethical force.
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Albert Camus
Winner of the Franco-British Society Literary Prize 2015

Few figures of twentieth-century French culture carry such an air of romance and intrigue as Albert Camus. Though his life was cut short by a fatal car accident in 1960, when he was just forty-six years old, he packed those years with an incredible amount of experience and accomplishment. This new entry in the Critical Lives series offers a fresh look at Camus’ life and work, from his best-selling novels like The Stranger to his complicated political engagement in a postwar world of intensifying ideological conflict. Edward Hughes offers a particularly nuanced exploration of Camus’ relationship to his native Algeria—a connection whose strength would be tested in the 1950s as France’s conflict with the anticolonial movement there became increasingly violent and untenable.
           
Ultimately, the picture Hughes offers is of a man whose commitment to ideas and truth reigned supreme, whether in his fiction, journalism, or political activity, a commitment that has led the man who disclaimed leadership—“I do not guide anyone,” he once pleaded—to nonetheless be seen as a powerful figure and ethical force.
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Albert Camus

Albert Camus

by Edward J. Hughes
Albert Camus

Albert Camus

by Edward J. Hughes

Paperback

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Overview

Winner of the Franco-British Society Literary Prize 2015

Few figures of twentieth-century French culture carry such an air of romance and intrigue as Albert Camus. Though his life was cut short by a fatal car accident in 1960, when he was just forty-six years old, he packed those years with an incredible amount of experience and accomplishment. This new entry in the Critical Lives series offers a fresh look at Camus’ life and work, from his best-selling novels like The Stranger to his complicated political engagement in a postwar world of intensifying ideological conflict. Edward Hughes offers a particularly nuanced exploration of Camus’ relationship to his native Algeria—a connection whose strength would be tested in the 1950s as France’s conflict with the anticolonial movement there became increasingly violent and untenable.
           
Ultimately, the picture Hughes offers is of a man whose commitment to ideas and truth reigned supreme, whether in his fiction, journalism, or political activity, a commitment that has led the man who disclaimed leadership—“I do not guide anyone,” he once pleaded—to nonetheless be seen as a powerful figure and ethical force.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781780234939
Publisher: Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date: 09/15/2015
Series: Critical Lives
Pages: 224
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Edward J. Hughes is professor of French at Queen Mary, University of London, and the author of several books. He is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Camus.

Table of Contents

Note on Texts, Abbreviations and Translations 7

Introduction: ?Who is Camus?' 9

1 Literacy, or ?the Regular Rows of the Lines' 16

2 ?True Love … Awkward Pages' 29

3 ?This Algiers Happiness' 37

4 All Work and No Play 47

5 A Beautiful Profession 55

6 A Tale of Two Outsiders 64

7 ?All Man's Misery…' 75

8 Combat and the Narrative of Liberation 87

9 ?A Catastrophe Slow to Happen' 99

10 Wars of Words Continued 111

11 Beyond Polemic: ?From Now On, Creation' 117

12 Staging Confession 129

13 Stockholm and the Backdrop to Fame 139

14 1958 152

15 Cohabiting with Oneself 164

16 A Contested Legacy 177

References 191

Bibliography 207

Acknowledgements 213

Photo Acknowledgements 215

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