The Stranger Or the Boy from Belcourt

THE STRANGER, OR THE BOY FROM BELCOURTINTRODUCTION“The memory of these years has also kept me from ever feeling satisfied in theexercise of my craft…As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think I’ve ever found delight inre-reading a finished page. I will even admit, ready to be taken at my word, that thesuccess of some of my books has always surprised me…Naturally, a writer has somejoys he lives for and that do satisfy him fully. But for me, these come at the momentof conception, at the instant when the subject reveals itself, when the articulation ofthe work sketches itself out before the suddenly heightened awareness, at thosedelicious moments when imagination and intelligence are fused. These momentsdisappear as soon as they are born. What is left is the execution, that is to say, a longperiod of hard work.” 2“A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art,those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart firstopened.” 3What remains to be said about Albert Camus (1913-1960)? More than one hundredyears after his birth and more than fifty years after his death, the French-Algerian writer,philosopher, playwright, and journalist has been analyzed ad absurdum by critics andscholars from almost every possible angle. Indeed, the breadth and depth of Camus’s oeuvre,not to mention its universal and particular appeal, invites such inquiry; within his work, onefinds lucid and lyrical prose, personal and political essays, and philosophical and polemicaltracts.Each reader has a different point of entry for Camus — some read The Stranger forthe first time in a high school French class, others The Rebel in a college philosophy course— but few start with the story of the author’s life. 4 This seems odd, given Camus’s renownas an intellectual rock star of the 20 th century. It’s also a bit of shame because so much ofCamus’s life informed his works, whether fictional, essayistic, theatrical, or autobiographical.As Adam Gopnik has written, “We recall [Camus] not just as a fine writer but as anexemplary man, a kind of secular saint, the spirit of his time, as well as the last French writerwhom most Americans know something about.” 52 Camus, Albert. Preface to The Wrong Side and The Right Side. Lyrical and Critical Essays. ed. by PhilipThody, trans. by Ellen Conroy Kennedy. New York: Knopf, 1968. Print. p. 10-113ibid. p. 174 Camus, Albert. The Stranger. trans. by Matthew Ward. New York: Knopf, 1988. Print.; The Rebel: An Essayon Man in Revolt. trans. by Anthony Bower. New York: Knopf, 1992. Print.5 Gopnik, Adam. “Facing History: Why We Love Camus.” The New Yorker. April 9, 2012, p. 70-76. Print. p. 70124