Lyrical and Critical Essays

Edited by Philip Thody, translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy. 

"Here now, for the first time in a complete English translation, we have Camus' three little volumes of essays, plus a selection of his critical comments on literature and his own place in it. As might be expected, the main interest of these writings is that they illuminate new facets of his usual subject matter."--The New York Times Book Review

"...a new single work for American readers that stands among the very finest."--The Nation
"The literary output of Albert Camus was exceptionally concentrated and well organized, so that each part of it throws light on the other parts.... Here now, for the first time in a complete English translation, we have Camus' three little volumes of essays, plus a selection of his critical comments on literature and on his own place in it. As might be expected, the main interest of these writings is that they illuminate new facets of his usual subject matter." —The New York Times Book Review

"The work of Albert Camus began to achieve international recognition after World War II, and from then until his death in 1960 no author was a greater articulator of the general reevaluation of human action that took place in the best literature of this period... because those works are so intense, so occupied with the themes of a civilization, it is good to have small, sometimes rough pieces which show a great writer close to the stuff of experience he would later refine and set into parables for an age. For it was his ability to stay near the plain, uncelebrated habits of life that gave Camus' art its peculiar strength and his thought its hard humanity." —Book World

"Some of the pieces have been translated individually before, but several of the best have not, and the complete sequence forms what is in effect a new, single work for American readers that stands among his very finest." —The Nation
Born in Algeria in 1913, ALBERT CAMUS published The Stranger--now one of the most widely read novels of this century--in 1942. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. On January 4, 1960, he was killed in a car accident. LAURA MARRIS is a writer and translator. Her book-length translations include Louis Guilloux's novel Blood Dark, which was short-listed for the 2018 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Her translation of Jean-Yves Frétigné's biography of Gramsci is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press in 2021. She teaches creative writing at the University at Buffalo. View titles by Albert Camus

About

Edited by Philip Thody, translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy. 

"Here now, for the first time in a complete English translation, we have Camus' three little volumes of essays, plus a selection of his critical comments on literature and his own place in it. As might be expected, the main interest of these writings is that they illuminate new facets of his usual subject matter."--The New York Times Book Review

"...a new single work for American readers that stands among the very finest."--The Nation

Reviews

"The literary output of Albert Camus was exceptionally concentrated and well organized, so that each part of it throws light on the other parts.... Here now, for the first time in a complete English translation, we have Camus' three little volumes of essays, plus a selection of his critical comments on literature and on his own place in it. As might be expected, the main interest of these writings is that they illuminate new facets of his usual subject matter." —The New York Times Book Review

"The work of Albert Camus began to achieve international recognition after World War II, and from then until his death in 1960 no author was a greater articulator of the general reevaluation of human action that took place in the best literature of this period... because those works are so intense, so occupied with the themes of a civilization, it is good to have small, sometimes rough pieces which show a great writer close to the stuff of experience he would later refine and set into parables for an age. For it was his ability to stay near the plain, uncelebrated habits of life that gave Camus' art its peculiar strength and his thought its hard humanity." —Book World

"Some of the pieces have been translated individually before, but several of the best have not, and the complete sequence forms what is in effect a new, single work for American readers that stands among his very finest." —The Nation

Author

Born in Algeria in 1913, ALBERT CAMUS published The Stranger--now one of the most widely read novels of this century--in 1942. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. On January 4, 1960, he was killed in a car accident. LAURA MARRIS is a writer and translator. Her book-length translations include Louis Guilloux's novel Blood Dark, which was short-listed for the 2018 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Her translation of Jean-Yves Frétigné's biography of Gramsci is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press in 2021. She teaches creative writing at the University at Buffalo. View titles by Albert Camus