Albert Camus (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781780234939)

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.

Author: Edward J. Hughes
ISBN-10: 1780234937
ISBN-13: 9781780234939
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Language: English
Published: 09/15/2015
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 7.80h x 5.00w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2016