The Stranger
- Category: Book
- Original title: L'Étranger
- Author: Albert Camus
- Genre: Philosophical/Absurdist Fiction
- Release Date: 1942-05-19
- Date: 2025-10-30
- Rating: 4/5
- Link: Goodreads
Albert Camus's The Stranger (L'Étranger): Review
Albert Camus’s The Stranger is a stark masterpiece of Absurdism, the philosophy asserting the conflict between humanity’s search for meaning and the universe’s indifferent silence.
The novel follows Meursault, a French Algerian who is profoundly detached from life. His emotional apathy is established immediately by his indifference to his mother's death. Meursault lives on the surface, his actions dictated by physical sensations (like the heat of the sun, which he blames for his later crime) rather than moral or emotional reasoning.
The core of the book lies in his trial. Meursault is condemned less for murdering an Arab man and more for his refusal to conform to social rituals—specifically, his failure to show grief and his general lack of remorse. He is persecuted for his authenticity in a world that demands lies and conventional feelings.
In his final, furious realization, Meursault achieves peace by accepting the universe's "benign indifference". By embracing the absurdity and meaninglessness of his existence, he finds a unique form of freedom and happiness. The novel is a chillingly simple yet profound critique of societal judgment and the human need for conventional meaning.
Abstract: Albert Camus's Philosophy of Absurdism
Albert Camus's core philosophy, Absurdism, centers on the fundamental conflict between humanity's inherent need to find meaning and the universe's cold, permanent indifference and silence. This collision —the human call for logic meeting the world's irrationality— is what Camus terms the Absurd. His work is a sustained argument against seeking false comfort in religion or ideology ("philosophical suicide") or succumbing to true despair (literal suicide). Instead, Camus proposes a path of revolt: the conscious, passionate, and lucid acceptance of the Absurd.
By recognizing that life is inherently meaningless, one gains absolute freedom and can choose to live fully and defiantly, maximizing human experience and solidarity in the face of certain death. The goal is not to resolve the Absurd, but to confront it with integrity.