Albert Camus (1913—1960) - Richard Curtis

3. Camus, Philosophical Literature, and the Novel of
Ideas
To pin down exactly why and in what distinctive sense Camus may be termed a
philosophical writer, we can begin by comparing him with other authors who have
merited the designation. Right away, we can eliminate any comparison with the efforts of
Lucretius and Dante, who undertook to unfold entire cosmologies and philosophical
systems in epic verse. Camus obviously attempted nothing of the sort. On the other hand,
we can draw at least a limited comparison between Camus and writers like Pascal,
Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche – that is, with writers who were first of all philosophers or
religious writers, but whose stylistic achievements and literary flair gained them a special
place in the pantheon of world literature as well. Here we may note that Camus himself
was very conscious of his debt to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche (especially in the style and
structure of The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel) and that he might very well have
followed in their literary-philosophical footsteps if his tuberculosis had not side-tracked
him into fiction and journalism and prevented him from pursuing an academic career.
Perhaps Camus himself best defined his own particular status as a philosophical writer
when he wrote (with authors like Melville, Stendhal, Dostoyevsky, and Kafka especially
in mind): “The great novelists are philosophical novelists”; that is, writers who eschew
systematic explanation and create their discourse using “images instead of arguments.”
(The Myth of Sisyphus, p.74.)
By his own definition then Camus is a philosophical writer in the sense that he has (a)
conceived his own distinctive and original world-view and (b) sought to convey that view
mainly through images, fictional characters and events, and dramatic presentation rather
than through critical analysis and direct discourse. He is also both a novelist of ideas and
a psychological novelist. And in this respect he certainly compares most closely to
Dostoyevsky and Sartre, two other writers who combine a unique and distinctly
philosophical outlook, acute psychological insight, and a dramatic style of presentation.
(Like Camus, Sartre was a productive playwright, and Dostoyevsky remains perhaps the
most dramatic of all novelists, as Camus himself seems to have realized, having adapted
both The Brothers Karamazov and The Possessed for the stage.)
4. Works
Camus’ reputation rests largely on the three novels published during his lifetime (The
Stranger, The Plague, and The Fall) and on his two major philosophical essays (The
Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel). However, his body of work also includes a collection
of short fiction (Exile and the Kingdom), an autobiographical novel The First Man, a
number of dramatic works (most notably Caligula, The Misunderstanding, and The Just
Assassins), several translations and adaptations (including new versions of works by
Calderon, Lope de Vega, Dostoyevsky, and Faulkner), and a lengthy assortment of
essays, prose pieces, critical reviews, transcribed speeches and interviews, articles, and
works of journalism. A brief summary and description of the most important of Camus’
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