The First Man - Softcover

Camus, Albert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140257241 ISBN 13: 9780140257243

Publisher: Penguin, 1996

Synopsis

Told as a novel, this is a moving account of the author's poverty-stricken childhood in Algeria, the love of his mother and the old schoolteacher who saved him from ignorance. The book acts as a novel on Algeria, on the relationship between man and the land, and between the French and Arabs.

About this title

About the Author:

French novelist, essayist, and playwright. Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a representative of non-metropolitan French literature. His origin in Algeria and his experiences there in the thirties were dominating influences in his thought and work. Among his works, The Plague (1947), The Just (1949) The Fall (1956). He was killed in a road accident in 1960. His last novel, The First Man, unfinished at the time of his death, appeared for the first time in 1994.

From the Inside Flap:

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0140257241
• ISBN 13: 9780140257243
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272