The Stranger by Albert Camus CONTEXT: “In our society,” wrote Albert Camus, “any man who does not cry at his mother's funeral is liable to be condemned to death. This may seem like an incredibly dramatic, almost self-indulgent sort of statement, but it's one that Camus implemented in The Outsider, and to frankly devastating effect. The Outsider has become a cult classic over the years, especially in undergraduate circles. It inspired The Cure's "Killing an Arab," a song that caused some controversy when it was (wrongly) assumed to advocate racial violence. The Outsider himself has also been subject to a range of assumptions and misconceptions, particularly regarding his philosophical project. In my opinion, however, it is not only one of the great novels of the 20th century, but also one that provides a useful introduction to one of the most fascinating philosophical movements of this century, existentialism. 'Stranger' in 1942, is commonly considered the greatest example of the existentialist novel, surpassing even Sartre's Nausea. This in itself is an extraordinary feat, because, while Jean-Paul Sartre was generally considered the founding father of 20th-century existentialism and exerted an almost unassailable influence on the French academic elite for several decades, Albert Camus initially emerged as a relatively obscure journalist. and playwright, who grew up in poverty in Algiers. Sartrean existentialism is a finely crafted thing, the agonizing complexities of which have been described in his heaviest and most serious tome, Being and Nothingness. In 1945, he described the existential project as “the attempt to draw all the consequences from a paper…der of the “Arab” seems to be of secondary importance; what really dismays the court is Mersault's implacable atheism and his refusal to show the slightest remorse. FINALLY: As previously mentioned, there are several misconceptions surrounding The Outsider, chief among them being the assumption of Mersault's dry and disinterested attitude before and immediately after the trial. murder represents a kind of existentialist ideal. This is not the case. In fact, it is not until much later that Mersault begins to show evidence of his epiphany. The Outsider is often unpleasant, but always beautifully written and extremely lyrical in places. It's only a short novel, in fact, it's as thin as a magazine...and could easily be read in one sitting. But it packs quite a punch. Read it. It might just change your life.Summary: A twentieth-century masterpiece