The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin Modern Classics) - Softcover

Camus, Albert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141182008 ISBN 13: 9780141182001

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2000

Synopsis

In this profound and moving philosophical statement, Camus poses the fundamental question: If human existence has no meaning, is life worth living?

'What I touch, what resists me - that is what I understand'

As Camus argues, if there is no God to give meaning to our lives, humans must take on that purpose themselves. This is our 'absurd' task, like Sisyphus condemned forever to roll a rock up a hill. Written during the bleakest days of the Second World War, The Myth of Sisyphus argues for an acceptance of reality that encompasses revolt, passion and, above all, liberty, gained through an awareness of pure existence.

This volume contains several other essays, including lyrical evocations of the sunlit cities of Algiers and Oran, the settings of his great novels The Outsider and The Plague. The writings in this volume are all, in their own way, hymns to the physical world and the elemental pleasures of living.

Translated by Justin O'Brien
With an afterword by James Wood

About this title

About the Author

James Wood (Afterword by)
James Wood has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 2007. In 2009, he won the National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism. He was the chief literary critic at the Guardian from 1992 to 1995, and a book critic at the New Republic from 1995 to 2007. He has published a number of books with Cape, including How Fiction Works, which has been translated into thirteen languages.

Albert Camus (Author)
Albert Camus (1913-60) grew up in a working-class neighbourhood in Algiers. He studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, and became a journalist. His most important works include The Outsider, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Plague and The Fall. After the occupation of France by the Germans in 1941, Camus became one of the intellectual leaders of the Resistance movement. He was killed in a road accident, and his last unfinished novel, The First Man, appeared posthumously.

Justin O'Brien (Translator)
Justin O'Brien was the Blanche W. Knopf Professor of French Literature at Columbia University and renowed translator of Anre Gide and Albert Camus, both of whom were his intimate friends.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0141182008
• ISBN 13: 9780141182001
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192