Camus tells the story of Jacques Cormery, a boy who lived a life much like his own. Camus summons up the sights, sounds and textures of a childhood circumscribed by poverty and a father's death yet redeemed by the austere beauty of Algeria and the boy's attachment to his nearly deaf-mute mother. Published thirty-five years after its discovery amid the wreckage of the car accident that killed Camus, The First Man is the brilliant consummation of the life and work of one of the 20th century's greatest novelists. Translated ...
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Camus tells the story of Jacques Cormery, a boy who lived a life much like his own. Camus summons up the sights, sounds and textures of a childhood circumscribed by poverty and a father's death yet redeemed by the austere beauty of Algeria and the boy's attachment to his nearly deaf-mute mother. Published thirty-five years after its discovery amid the wreckage of the car accident that killed Camus, The First Man is the brilliant consummation of the life and work of one of the 20th century's greatest novelists. Translated from the French by David Hapgood. "The First Man is perhaps the most honest book Camus ever wrote, and the most sensual...Camus is...writing at the depth of his powers...It is a work of genius."--The New Yorker "Fascinating...The First Man helps put all of Camus's work into a clearer perspective and brings into relief what separates him from the more militant literary personalities of his day...Camus's voice has never been more personal."--New York Times Book Review
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A few years following his acclaim as Nobel Prize winner, Albert Camus suffers a fatal car accident. The manuscript found in the wreckage has been edited by his daughter and published as "the First Man" in 1995. In this autobiography, camus intdroduces us to the poverty and struggles of the french algerian colonists. Having been orphaned by his fathers death in WWW 1 trenches, he is raised by an affectionate but deaf mute Mother and a tyrannical and abusive gradmother. How he survives this bleak environment is largely due to a remarkable teacher who rechognizes his talsnts and tutors him up to scholarships. Tallented in philosophy as well as journalism, his essays on "Absurdism" and nihilism make a mark on Parisian intellectuals. Written with intense feeling and honesty, his life story is tryuly inspiring. A great book !
sghfromnj
Sep 8, 2007
The First Man - Camus
This was such a gem to find! Unfinished, and therefore full of notes to himself, it shows us Camus in reverie. Tender, heartbreaking, real -- I feel I have been in the life of the boy who surely was Camus himself! Even if you find other books by Camus uncomfortably dark, this one is full of the kind of hope that perseveres in the heart of a brilliant spirit.
