num_pages: 128
description: Meursalt leads an apparently unremarkable bachelor life in Algeria until his involvement in a violent incident calls into question the fundamental values of society. In his classic existential novel Camus explores the predicament of the individual who is prepared to face the benign indifference of the universe courageously and alone. In this world, cut off from a sense of God, society has created rules so binding that any person breaking them is condemned as an alien, an outsider. For Meursalt it is an insult to his reason and a betrayal of his hopes; for Camus it is the absurdity of life. To him Meursalt was not 'a reject, but a poor and naked man…who, without any heroic pretensions, agrees to die for the truth.'
language: English
title: The Outsider
titlecomplete: The Outsider
characters: Salamano, Meursault, Raymond Sintès, Marie Cardona
genres: 20th Century, Literature, Novels, Philosophy, School, French Literature, Classics, Fiction, Literary Fiction, France
ratings_count: 1017756
places: New Mexico, Algeria, North Africa
awards: awardedAt: 599644800000
name: PEN Translation Prize
category: Matthew Ward
publisher: Penguin Classic